Chris Fulop
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Pre-NAIC Tournament Results, What They Mean, PikaRom vs. ReshiZard, and Words on a Bunch of High-Placing Lists “Headed into NAIC, it is important to track what decks have been doing well. In this case, the results of the two events I think are most important to be familiar with are Santiago Regionals and Origins SPE. In Santiago, the Top 8 deck breakdown for Masters was as follows: 1. PikaRom 2. PikaRom 3. PikaRom 4. Shedinja 5. ReshiZard 6. Malamar 7. Zoroark-GX/Persian-GX/Slowking 8. ReshiZard As for Origins, it was attended by over 100 Masters and won by Daniel Altavilla who defeated Will Jenkins in a ZapBeasts mirror match. These standings paint a clear picture: PikaRom and ZapBeasts are…
Fulop’s Fiery Unbroken Bonds Set Review, Exploring SUM–UNB w/ ReshiZard, GardEon, and Baby Blace, and Innovations at EUIC “via: Limitless TCG Fans of Tapu Koko rejoice! This deck is loaded with them! As a dedicated Spread deck, this list runs 4 copies of the Flying Flip promo (I now regret only buying 3 copies of the card under the assumption that was more than I’d ever need!), the Prism Star, and a copy of the GX. This is far from the first time we’ve seen a Tapu Koko-based Spread deck, and the core of this deck is certainly a gimmick we’ve seen before. Flying Flip and Shrine of Punishment spread damage early on, while Zapdos TEU and Larvitar…
A Look at the Established Contenders (Lightning Toolbox, Zapdos/Ultra Beasts, Blacephalon, Zororoc, and Ultra Necrozma/Malamar) for Denver Regionals “This deck can play an aggressive Zapdos plan, but also gets to transition into Pikachu & Zekrom-GX. This deck can’t go for the Turn 1 Full Blitz reliably, but it gives up that line for a lot of additional versatility. Let’s look at all of the different attackers this deck supports! Zapdos Pikachu & Zekrom-GX Zeraora-GX Tapu Koko-GX Jolteon-GX Tapu Koko {*} (Hey, it can attack!) The lines are all thin, but it doesn’t really matter too much as you have so many options. One thing that is important to stress with this deck is that no, you won’t always…
PikaRom, A Bunch of Zoroarks (Garbodor, Golisopod, Golisopod/Lucario), Rayquaza/Ho-Oh, and Archie’s Blastoise for Toronto “Team Up is legal for Toronto, but if we look at the impact the set has had in Standard, there are only a handful of cards that have been impactful, and clearly the barrier of entry in Expanded is much higher. A card such as Jirachi TEU, for example, which has been a major player in Standard, may see some play in Expanded, but it won’t see nearly as much as it does in Standard. There is so much draw power already available that even if certain decks do choose to run a Jirachi engine, those same decks will likely…
Oceania IC Results Discussion, Breakout Cards, and the Four Major Decks Heading into Collinsville “Let’s look at the results from the Masters Division of the event! Here are the Day 2 final standings (via Limitless, PokéStats, RK9 Labs): 1. Byron Isaiah Williams — Zapdos Jirachi 2. Stéphane Ivanoff — Zoroark Lycanroc Lucario 3. Kaiwen Cabbabe — Pikachu & Zekrom 4. Jose Marrero — Pikachu & Zekrom 5. Bert Wolters — Zapdos Jirachi 6. Lucas Henrique de Araujo Pereira — Pikachu & Zekrom 7. Henry Brand — Zoroark Lycanroc 8. Daniel Altavilla — Zapdos Jirachi 9. Christian Hasbani — Malamar Ultra Necrozma 10. Robin Schulz — Zapdos Jirachi 11. Azul Garcia Griego — Zapdos Jirachi 12. Rahul…
With the hair wrapped around its body helping to enhance its muscles, this Pokémon can overwhelm even Machamp. (Grimmsnarl)
The Return of Fulop’s Korner, Malamar Goes Far, and a Special Poll (RED or BLUE?) “I finished in the Top 64 of Roanoke Regionals with a pretty unique take on an Ultra Necrozma/Malamar deck that has since spawned a very unusual direction for me to take the archetype. For reference, this is the list I piloted at the event: This deck has a lot of options available to it, but the main thing that stood out from playing the deck is just how strong Ultra Necrozma’s Sky-Scorching Light-GX attack was. Traditionally, Ultra Necrozma builds of Malamar focused on just one-shotting opposing Pokemon. That isn’t exactly a bad plan, as Ultra Necrozma is extremely efficient…
The Meta, LeBronzong, and a Ton of Toads “The Metagame LeBronzong Other Favorite Decks Seismitoad/Garbodor Seismitoad/Garbodor/Manectric Donphan Rogue Mentions Tool Drop Seismitoad/Delphox Conclusion Now that the format has been established, here are the major decks we are dealing with: Donphan Seismitoad/Garbodor Yveltal/Garbodor Seismitoad/Yveltal/Garbodor Bronzong Night March Virizion/Genesect Plasma Pyroar Tool Drop Manectric Decks Big Basic Decks The two biggest pillars of the format are Donphan and Seismitoad. I am not even going to argue that these are the best cards or decks in the format for this to be true (though I do feel they are as good as any other decks or cards). The reason they get the…
Archetypes and Homebrews, Split Decisions and the Magic Way “One thing that has really hindered the isolation of “best decks” IS the split in formats. Day 1 is a small sample size and pretty high variance. I intentionally did not list the placements after day 1 Swiss for the archetypes because of how big a swing one draw or one late-game topdeck can make in altering a person’s rank. Usually when a deck wins a whole event, you can safely say the deck really earned it and was a cut above the rest of the field. A top 8 berth means quite a bit more than being ranked in the…
Looking Back at LBS (Lugia ex, Blastoise ex, Steelix ex) “LBS as a deck is pretty simple. You use Blastoise ex’s Poke-Power Energy Rain to power up a variety of attackers who use two or less non-Water Energy in their attack costs with the Holon Pokemon. In this particular deck, the two primary attackers are Lugia ex and Steelix ex. Lugia ex’s Elemental Blast smacked for a whopping 200 damage, taking out even the toughest ex in the format in one shot. Steelix ex was meant for board control, with Mudslide. Mudslide’s 100 damage to even a Benched Pokemon let you pick off Prizes and up-and-coming Pokemon alike. This was…
Worlds Outlook, What We Lose, Furious Fists Review, and Super Secret Plant Deck “Worlds Outlook Pyroar Flygon Landorus/Raichu/Garbodor Rayboar and Blastoise Virizion/Genesect Yveltal/Garbodor Plasma Worlds Wrap-Up What We Lose From the Rotation Furious Fists Review Conclusion Super Secret Plant Deck The big story coming out of US Nationals was the popularity and success of Pyroar. I talked about how I felt Pyroar was not a particularly good card in my last article. I predicted it would not see a lot of play and not do well. On one hand, I have to eat a bit of crow because I was wrong. I actually stand by the fact I do not think the card is…
Common throughout the Galar region, this Pokémon has strong teeth and can chew through the toughest of berry shells. (Greedent)
My Expected Metagame Triangle for US Nationals 2014 “The 2013-2014 tournament structure, with the lack of spring Battle Roads, actually has a fairly substantial impact on how to approach going into Nationals this year. There haven’t been any major events in the States featuring Flashfire to date. (Yes, for the sake of this point, I consider Battle Roads to be a relevant event. No, I do not put League Challenges in the same category.) The impact of the new cards being introduced to the format have not been felt on a wide scale. To counteract this, there is more online content discussing Pokemon than ever before, and use of…
Final Lists of NXD-XY, Flashfire Set Review, and Updated Decks “Where We Stand: The End of NXD-XY Dark Decks Rayboar, Blastoise Virizion/Genesect Plasma Fairy Toolbox Fringe Decks Flashfire Set Review Incorporating Flashfire Old Decks Blastoise Rayboar Plasma Aggro Yveltal Yveltal/Garbodor Virizion/Genesect Fairy Toolbox New Decks Pyroar/Archeops Charizard Conclusion These types of decks break down into a few different categories, but they share enough overlap that it’s worth addressing them at once. They all center around Yveltal-EX, the big powerhouse to come out of XY, stepping in to relieve Darkrai of its duties as the core attacker to abuse Sableye and Dark Patch. The range of these decks is fairly wide though. Some…
An All-Inclusive Tome on the Early NXD-XY Format “(This is a very long article. You may want to click the links below to skip between sections.) XY Set Review The Big Picture Winter Regionals Fallout Incorporating XY Emboar/Delphox Trevenant/Garbodor Trevenant/Flareon Darkrai/Garbodor Darkrai/Yveltal Hydreigon Virizion/Genesect Plasma Yveltal/Bouffalant Fairies Conclusion Venusaur-EX Well, let’s look at our next round of “Evolution” EXs. This guy is a bit of a stinker. It has high HP, but its attacks are really underwhelming. A middling 3 Energy (2 with a DCE) poisoning attack isn’t very good. I guess you do get 90 damage out of it with a Virbank, but even if you do…
Only Farfetch’d that have survived many battles can attain this evolution. When this Pokémon’s leek withers, it will retire from combat. (Sirfetch’d)
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