Bio: I am from the Northeast – grew up in New York, went to college in Pennsylvania and now live in Philadelphia/Baltimore. I am a high school mathematics and technology teacher.
I have been playing competitively since the 2003-2004 season, taking a break from going for a Worlds invite from 2009 – 2014. In addition to my accomplishments below, I have been involved with SixPrizes since its inception, head up the podcast, and have worked with almost every top player in the game at some point or another. I am a member of Team X-Files, which has some of the best players to have ever played the game and more accolades over the years than almost any other team.
Accomplishments (2004 – 2010) :
-T4, T8, and T16 US Nationals (2008, 2004, 2010)
-T32 Worlds (2005, 2006)
-Multiple T4 or better placements at Regionals and States
Accomplishments (2015-2018)
-Day 1 Worlds invitee every year that has made it through to Day 2 each time
-T8 Philadelphia Regional (2014)
-2nd Philadelphia Regional (2016)
-Multiple Day 2’s and T16’s at Regionals
-Multiple T8’s at States
‘Exploring Expanded’ with an Eye toward Portland’s Regional Championships“On this episode, Mike is joined by Israel Sosa, Phinnegan Lynch, and Tyler Ninomura to discuss the new look of the Expanded format heading into the first large Expanded event of the year: Portland Regionals! iTunes SoundCloud
Profiling Alolan Exeggutor and Vespiquen, Plus More Expanded Thoughts and Tidbits“The biggest piece of advice I can give you for the upcoming Regional in Portland is this: expect the unexpected. I think lots of players will try to take whatever deck they find the most interesting or fun and attempt to make it work for this tournament. Though there are established powerhouses, the format is undeniably more accessible to random decks than it was back in the spring for Roanoke. This will lead to lots of pet decks. There is no reasonable way you can prepare for everything, so try to give some thought of how whatever deck you decide to…
Mike’s Look at Zoroark/Weavile and Passimian from Philadelphia, Plus Moving Forward“The Magcargo line was a 1-1 Garbodor line for a while, but I was convinced by some people to swap it for Magcargo. I still think a thin line of Garbodor is pretty good in Zoroark, as evidenced by Xander’s run to the semi-finals. I had this deck submitted as of 7:30am Saturday morning, but was convinced to switch, as I’ll discuss below. Before that, I’d like to highlight a few other things in the list: Tapu Koko, Oranguru, and Tapu Lele are all pretty good basics to play in a Zoroark deck. I think Oranguru is the most cuttable,…
A Look at the Worlds Meta, Gardevoir, Gallade, and Decidueye“First, let’s discuss the premises that most of my thinking has stemmed from: Zoroark/Magcargo, Zoroark/Garbodor, Buzzwole/Lycanroc, and Rayquaza decks will make up the majority of the field at Worlds. These four decks are very powerful and can beat almost any deck, even if the specific matchup isn’t the best. Before and at NAIC, Malamar decks were among the top performing decks, but I suspect they will take a sharp dip in play at Worlds. This is for a couple reasons: first, they take a very weak matchup against all the Zoroark decks and even more so against the two listed…
Podcast Ep. 21: The Best Decks from NAIC“In the first episode post-NAIC, Mike is joined by 3 guests who piloted unique decks and decklists to strong finishes at said event. Philip Schulz discusses the unique Zoroark list that he took to a Top 32 finish and Tord finished 2nd place with. James Arnold discusses Yveltal BREAK, a deck he piloted to Top 64 and similar to that which other players including Aaron Tarbell saw success with. And our own Jimmy Pendarvis talks about Zoroark/Golisopod/Delinquent and how it carried him to Top 4! A must listen episode for anyone looking to build good decks (which should be everyone, I…
Looking at Zoroark/Lycanroc’s Chances for NAIC ’18“Psychic dudes Second Mew-EX: I like this inclusion more in ZoroPod as you can copy First Impression to utilize Grass Energy. In this deck we will almost always just copy Riotous Beating. This deck needs more Buzzwole help than ZoroPod does, however, so a second copy of this is definitely considerable. Mewtwo EVO: Mewtwo has been the go-to one-prize Psychic attacker for a while now and for good reason. I spoke quite a bit about Mewtwo in Gardevoir and it has some similar applications here. Being able to Brigette for Mewtwo is important and it trades 2HKOs with Baby Buzzwole.…
A Profile of Gardevoir-GX/Gallade as an Option for NAIC ’18“Gardevoir’s history is well documented, going back to the World Championships last year. Diego won that tournament in stunning fashion, with Pablo also making Top 8 (only losing to Diego, in fact!). Coming into this season, Gardevoir was well positioned to continue its domination. During the first few months of the 2017-2018 season that is exactly what it did. It put up strong performances in both formats: my buddies Sam Chen and Pablo made Top 4 and won the two Standard autumn Regionals in Hartford and Vancouver with the Sylveon version of the deck, while it even took some Top…
Podcast Ep. 20: Getting a Grip on Standard“This week, join Mike and his guests as they discuss Standard ahead of this weekend’s Sheffield Regionals. He was able to find 4 very strong players attending the event, namely Robin Schulz, Alex Dao, Frank Percic and Eric Gansman! Listen in if you’re fiending to beat Buzzwole at your upcoming League Cups or you want a leg up on the competition for next month’s North American International Championship! Download ? iTunes ? SoundCloud ☁
Podcast Ep. 19: Investigating Standard For Wisconsin“For this week’s episode, Mikey hosted a slew of competitors new and experienced to talk Standard. He was joined by Dallas Regional Champion Riley Hulbert, Regional Top 8 Competitor Rukan Shao, and our very own Brit Pybas to take a look into a future with seemingly less Buzzwole! The group touches on almost every deck imaginable in the Standard format, check it out if you’re preparing for Madison Regionals or League Cups! Download ? iTunes ? SoundCloud ☁
Podcast Ep. 18: Shedding a Light on the Forbidden Formats“In this episode, Mikey and his guests discuss the impact of Forbidden Light on the Standard and Expanded formats (but mostly Expanded). Join him, Frank Diaz, Rahul Reddy, and Alex Hill as they look forward to the upcoming Virginia Regionals and this weekend’s Mexico City Special Event! The group also discusses their differing approaches to the season and how they have or haven’t worked out. Download ? iTunes ? SoundCloud ☁
Podcast Ep. 16: Previewing the São Paulo International Championship“This week, Mikey hosted 3 of the most successful American players on the International stage to discuss the Standard metagame as we head into the Latin America International Championship. This episode features Michael Pramawat, Joe Ruetteger, and our own Jimmy Pendarvis who will all be attending Brazil’s International Championship next week. The group discusses the progression of the Standard format over the past month or so, as well as pretty much every deck in the format, so it’s a great listen for anyone interested in Standard! Download ? iTunes ? SoundCloud ☁
A Standard Look at Gardevoir-GX, with Expanded Profiles of M Gardevoir & Durant“To put it bluntly, I think many of the decks we have seen do well recently are not—objectively—good decks. I’m talking about things like Attacking Hoopa, Sylveon, Vikabulu, and even Espeon/Garb. They are just weaker in power level than the other options in the format – decks like Zoroark/Golisopod, Zoroark/Lycanroc, Gardevoir, and Buzzwole/Lycanroc. This “new meta” is strange – these decks are clearly finding success, but only because of how they stack up against the old meta. In general, they are weaker decks, but have better matchups. This provides an interesting lens in which to approach the format: play stronger…
Podcast Ep. 15: How To Improve Your Game“This week, Mikey sat down with Russell LaParre and our own Pablo Meza to discuss the Standard and Expanded formats as they sit after the last month of nonstop tournaments. Additionally, the three discuss different ways to improve your testing and gameplay skills. Between these topics and anecdotes to show you how to put the information to use, there’s something for everyone in this episode! Download ? iTunes ? SoundCloud ☁
A Charlotte Primer, a Trio of Zoroark decks, and…Mega Sceptile?“I have been enamored with the consistency of this deck recently. It is much more consistent than the other Zoroark decks because the deck runs seven “attackable” Energy cards—Energy that can be used to attack for just one attachment. This is a huge boost to the deck, as Zoroark variants like Lycanroc, Weavile, and Gardevoir require either multiple attachments beyond using Riotous Beating or cannot be fully utilized until later in the game. Golisopod, therefore, is the most consistently powerful in the early game. My current list for this is a mash up of Igor Costa’s and Benjamin Pham’s. I…
Podcast Ep. 14: Starting March’s Standard Madness“This week, Mikey sat down with Azul Garcia Griego, Chip Richey (Trainer Chip), and our own Xander Pero to recap Expanded and look ahead to Charlotte Regionals. They talk in depth about Zoroark/Golisopod and Buzzwole/Lycanroc as the best decks Standard, as well as potential shifts in both metagames. Download ? iTunes ? SoundCloud ☁
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