Mike Fouchet
Author Archive
Podcast Ep. 13: Expanded Assessments for Costa Mesa “In this week’s episode, Mikey sits down with Pablo Meza, Kenny Britton, and Jonathan Paranada to discuss recent changes to the Expanded format and the impact they might have on the upcoming Costa Mesa Regionals. Download ? iTunes ? SoundCloud ☁
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Podcast Ep. 12: A Look at Ultra Prism and Its Impact on Standard “This week, Mikey talks to a panel of SixPrizes writers from past and present to discuss standout cards from Ultra Prism and the changes they could bring to the Standard format. Join him, Brad Curcio, Dustin Zimmerman, and Alex Hill as they hopefully predict these changes and their impact on this weekend’s Collinsville Regionals better than how their analysis of Zoroark/Gardevoir turned out! You can find the podcast on SoundCloud or iTunes, just long enough for your lunch break (and dessert)!
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Podcast Ep. 11: Looking Ahead to Internationals in Sydney “If you haven’t noticed, Mike Fouchet is running the podcast these days and it’s better than ever! Join him this week as he talks with Bodhi Cutler and Jordan Palmer of Australia, Benjamin Pham of The Netherlands, and our own Christopher Schemanske about the upcoming International Championship in Sydney, Australia. Look forward to another episode of the podcast in the near future, featuring discussion on Ultra Prism and it’s impact on Standard for Collinsville!
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Running Through Top Picks for Dallas, a look into Vespiquen, and Night March Nightmares “Despite the vast card pool, the metagame is a bit centralized. Zoroark is clearly a meta-defining card, as it pairs so well with the recovery and high impact cards available in Expanded. I was listening to a Hearthstone podcast recently, and one of the players (Zalae) talked about how the format should be the stalest right before a rotation. His reasoning is that because there are so many cards, there are bound to be broken combinations of cards which lead to some decks just being that much stronger than any other decks. We see this effect in our Expanded format,…
Podcast Update, League Cup Strategies, Expanded Overview, and a Case Study in Deckbuilding “For many of you reading this, doing well at a Regionals might seem daunting. A much more reasonable goal may be to top cut and perform well at a League Cup. Over the past eight months or so, I have surprised myself with how efficiently well I have done at League Cups. This season in particular has been kind to me. Let’s take a look at a quick recap at my 2017-2018 League Cups: Quarter 1 League Cup 1: Top 8 with Golisopod/Garbodor League Cup 2: 1st with Gardevoir/Sylveon League Cup 3: 1st with Gardevoir/Sylveon Quarter 2 League Cup 1:…
This Pokémon has a jaw that’s as sharp as a spear and as strong as steel. Apparently ___________’s flesh is surprisingly tasty, too. (Barraskewda)
Diving into Different Variants of Gardevoir and Taking a Look at Gourgeist “If I am advocating for playing the best deck, we should examine what special considerations we might take when playing such a deck. Practice, practice, practice. Though you should be testing and practicing with whatever deck you intend to play, it is perhaps even more important when playing the best deck. Other players will have focused their testing around your deck, so they will understand their core strategy against you. It is often good practice to play other decks against the best deck – even if you intend to play the best deck – so you can see the weak…
The Thoroughly Comprehensive Guide to All Things Gardevoir in BKT–BUS “Before my last article, Lex D’Andrea beat me in Top 8 of a League Cup, going on to win the event. I took his deck and won the Cup the next day. I spent the next two weeks testing out little changes in the list to get to a more refined list for Hartford. We ended up changing only a few cards and you can see the list we ended up playing: Sam made Top 4 and Pablo made Top 16 with one card different. Myself and our other teammate Spencer Nalle played the same list as Sam, with Spencer getting Top…
Gauging the Strengths of Golisopod and Gardevoir, Manging the Matchup, and Deciding on Decidueye/Ninetales “In any case, Golisopod/Garbodor is still a very strong play for the current Standard format and I decided to play it at a League Cup this past weekend. I had spoken with Mees a bit the week leading up to his regional in Germany and my League Cups. We were both set on playing Garbodor decks, considering Golisopod, Drampa/Po Town and Espeon-GX. On Friday, Mees sent me the Golisopod/Garbodor he had decided on: The list looked good to me and I enjoyed the Tapu Fini idea a lot: against unsuspecting Fire players I could make some nice plays, using the…
Looking at Gardevoir New & Old, Plus Some Seismitoad Shenanigans for Fort Wayne “You can check out the list Pablo and I played at Worlds this year on the official Pokemon website. I was still deciding between Gardevoir, Vespiquen, and Noivern/Garbodor the day before the event, but my friend Tyler Ninomura eventually convinced me to run with Gardevoir. Tyler spent a lot of time testing the list and it was largely his creation. During the Wednesday and Thursday before Day 1, we made the final decisions on our 59th and 60th cards after testing against various decks. Overall, we were pretty happy with our list. Gardevoir was an interesting deck to choose for…
Musings on PRC–BUS’ Top Contenders and Exploring Noivern-GX’s Partners “I have played about 50 games in the new format, some against myself, some in real life with other Worlds players, and some online via PlayTCG. None of these options are ideal, so I am really looking forward to Burning Shadows coming out on PTCGO soon. I will be dedicating many more hours to testing once that happens. I’d like to share what I have “figured out” in my testing thus far: Gardevoir-GX is incredibly strong and beats most things. Travis’s article covered Gardevoir very well and my current list is similar to his. I like Sylveon in the deck:…
They diligently serve people and Pokémon so they can gather feelings of gratitude. The females are particularly good at babysitting. (Indeedee)
Decidueye’s Plume-less Resurgence, Drampa/Garbodor’s Nationals Performances, and Initial Thoughts on Worlds “I am fortunate to have a lot of friends in the Pokemon TCG. Specifically, I stayed with 10 other friends (across multiple hotel rooms, don’t worry!) that all had not chosen a deck prior to arriving in Indianapolis. Before I arrived Wednesday evening, I was pretty set on Darkrai. My list was similar to the one I posted in my article last week, but I had been testing some games with four Fighting Fury Belt over the four Choice Band. I thought this might give a better shot against decks like Vikavolt/Tapu Bulu, and just help keep Darkrai alive longer.…
Rounding out the Format with Drampa/Garbodor, Vespiquen, Darkrai, and a Popularity Tier List for Indy “The initial GRI metagame was single-handedly shaped by the dominance of Drampa/Garbodor in Seattle. Though Espeon/Garbodor has recently been accepted as the better Garbodor deck for the current metagame, this may not have been the case without the results in the Emerald City. I would still expect to play against a Drampa/Garb or two at Internationals, as the deck has so many options. Drampa is truly an incredible card, evidenced by the fact we have seen it be part of two of the most dominants decks of the Guardians Rising metagame. The pressure of Drampa often forces opponents to play…
Developing the Ideal Formula for Gyarados and Determining its Place in the NAIC Metagame “Gyarados has been around as a deck almost the entire season. It was a potential secret deck heading into the first Regional of the year in Orlando. I worked extensively on a list with Bob Zhang, who won two League Challenges with it in September, and was ready to play it in Orlando before I found out that everyone actually knew about it. Still, it did okay there with a Top 16 finish. Though my list with Bob focused on Octillery, the list that did well in Orlando gave us a glimpse into a different variant, one focused more on…
Lurantis/Vileplume and Other Options for Toronto “Before I dive into the meat of my article, I want to comment on a few things from this past weekend in Virginia. I just wanted to play something consistent, as I felt like this format was just about executing your strategy faster and more often than your opponent. Turbo Darkrai seemed to fit the bill nicely, so after seeing Philip Schulz do well in Brazil, I played a bunch of games with his list, made a single change, and went to town. My one change was -1 Dark Energy +1 Parallel City, as I thought the extra copy would…
My Season So Far, Sun & Moon Impact Cards, the State of Expanded, Top 10 Viable Decks, Notable Omissions, and New Contenders “Last you heard from me, I had done well at some League Challenges in the fall before failing to perform at Orlando Regionals. In that article, I highlighted some of my top plays for the Expanded Philadelphia Regionals, where I was fortunate enough to take second place with an Accelgor/Wobbuffet list only two cards off the one I presented. Since then, I have not attended any other Regional Championships, as my schedule has not allowed it. I have, however, performed well at some League Cups. I took Vespiquen/Zebstrika to a Top 8 where I was eliminated in a close set…
As it grows inside its shell, it uses its psychic abilities to monitor the outside world and prepare for evolution. (Dottler)
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