Pablo Meza
Author Archive
Bio: My name is Pablo Meza, also known as Tablemon, and I’m a Pokémon TCG player from Mexico who currently holds the title of 2016 Mexican National Champion. Aside from that, I’ve had my fair share of success at an international level, where some of my biggest accomplishments include a 3rd place at Worlds 2005 with the infamous Queendom deck, and 7th place at the most recent Worlds 2017 with Gardevoir-GX. I’ve been playing this game competitively since Pokémon took over back in 2003, albeit at varying degrees of competitiveness due to life/school/work but as of today, I am amongst those who play this game as a professional.
Two Frontrunners (Eternatus VMAX and ADPZ) and Two Counter Picks (Torkoal V and Welder Toolbox) for Players Cup II “This Eternatus VMAX list is quite standard, Pokemon-wise, with maximum counts on the key Pokemon—the Eternatus line, Crobat V, and Galarian Zigzagoon—with three extra tech Pokemon in the Hoopa duo and Sableye V. Sableye V is a pretty powerful yet underwhelming attacker if it takes two turns to power up. However, the use of Energy Switch in this list can allow for a turn where you bench the Sableye V, Switch into it, and then Energy Switch to do massive damage to an opponent with Crazy Claws. This “surprise” Sableye V play has come in handy and surprised a ton…
Rolling the Dice on My Top Five Decks for POG 2020, Including Vikavolt V, Eternatus VMAX, ADPZ, Centiskorch VMAX, and Blacephalon “This is a hyper aggressive and turbo build of Vikavolt V, focused on trying to get an early Item lock of course, but leaning more towards the aggressive side of things after the initial “lock phase” with the Turbo Patch support. It has every single support Pokemon available at the moment, except for Oranguru SSH, which has made the deck consistent overall. Supporters-wise, it has a standard engine but the single copy of Bellelba & Brycen-Man is there to help vs. Eternatus VMAX decks in theory. In reality though, I never faced any, but I did utilize BBM to win…
SQUARE Eternatus, Centiskorch VMAX, and Slumbering Mill for UPR–DAA “With this tournament in mind, I’ve been testing a few decks from Darkness Ablaze that on paper look like they are incredibly strong. The first is the ever-so-obvious combo that Pokemon presents to us: Eternatus VMAX. I really like Eternatus because of the Turbo approach it can employ, by being able to fully abuse Crobat V’s Night Asset Ability which is just like Shaymin-EX ROS’s Set Up (except limited to once per turn), and Galarian Zigzagoon SSH in order to increase its damage output which is already very high at 270 total. The Eternatus deck I’ve been working on also…
ADPZ onto Week 2 of the Players Cup, Why I Switched Decks, On the Seeding + No Shows, and ¿Hablas Español? “We had taken inspiration from my fellow Mexican player Oliver Rochin Montijo and his Limitless Invitational Top 4 deck. As you can see, though, that list included a bunch of techy cards such as Tool Scrapper, Metal Frying Pan, Chaotic Swell, and Mallow & Lana, none of which really help in any way in terms of getting the GX attack off on turn one. I decided to cut all the fluff and max out on counts of cards that I deemed were crucial when going for the combo, and this is the list I ended up with: Maxing out on…
Evaluating My PikaRom Play, Combo Blacephalon, Techy Dragapult, and General Thoughts from Playing in the Various Online Tournaments “Watch: I want to delve deeper into the second game from the Winners Finals match vs. Tord and provide an analysis as to why I in fact did not get “unlucky” to not draw the Electropower to basically seal the game. Instead, I actually didn’t play optimally the previous turn, and this will hopefully show why it’s so important to look back into what you could’ve done better in every match, rather than blame losses on luck. Here is the crucial turn where 1 Electropower off of this Dedechange hand would’ve allowed me to KO the Dragapult with Energy and…
No matter who you are, if you bring strong emotions near this Pokémon, it will silence you violently. (Hattrem)
Blacephalon and Dragapult VMAX (My Two Favs to Grind With), Thoughts on PTCGO + the Players Cup, and Limitless Invitational Meta Musings “So far, my favorite decks to grind with have been Baby Blacephalon and Dragapult VMAX. Baby Blacephalon has been a new interest for me as I usually despised playing against it, and in general I felt like Welder decks were too hit-or-miss. Having played a lot with it recently though, with the mentality of “if you can’t beat them, join them,” I’ve enjoyed using it. Blacephalon really focuses on perfect sequencing and rewards optimal deck-thinning to put yourself in great spots where you’re basically guaranteed to not miss KOs, on top of trading extremely favorably against the big TAG TEAMs…
Dragapult VMAX/Hammers, ADPZ/Hammers, Inteleon VMAX/…Hammers, and the Rebel Clash Economy “Here are a few things that I think could have a direct impact on Qualifier #3’s metagame: Card Accessibility: For live play, you can just order what you need from a site such as TCGplayer and be ready for the event. Online codes have a factor of chance; even though there are stores that sell PTCGO cards directly, this is against the terms of use (§13: Trading Virtual Content) of the game. Trading your packs directly for singles is the best way to acquire singles online, but you rely on the online supply being there by “chance.” No one really knows…
What I Like About the Limitless Online Series, Mew3/Malamar (My Q1 Deck), and Malamar VMAX to Counter Dragapult, the Likely New BDIF “I think what I love the most about the Limitless Online Series is their format, with Best-of-1, 25-minute rounds, akin to what Japan runs for their own big tournaments. Best-of-1 adds variance, but in order to compensate for that, the original plan was to play 20 total rounds, and I expect that to stand. I love it because it makes strategies such as Cinccino Mill or Pidgeotto Control less viable. These, in my personal opinion, take away fun from the game as they essentially are solitaire decks where your opponent doesn’t get to do much during their turn, removing all…
Seaking (and Destroy…) and My Top Three VMAXs from Rebel Clash (Dragapult, Toxtricity & Inteleon) w/ Launchpad Lists “This leads me to the deck I mentioned before, Seaking SSH! I’ve been having a ton of fun messing with opponents and trying to exhaust all their resources before they can take 6 Prizes. The main resource you try to get rid of, of course, is Energy as Ripping Horn removes 3 Energy over the course of two turns (on average). When you consider that Zacian V decks can only have 4 Metal Saucer, or PikaRom decks only have 1 Tapu Koko {*} and 1 Thunder Mountain {*}, the loss of 3 Energy can be huge. And when you combine…
On TrevNoir in Dallas, Other Expanded Contenders, ADsPinner, and the Post-Malmö Standard Tier List “Granted, I expected the deck to be played more than in Dallas of course, which is why I had a specific tech for mirror in my list: Wobbuffet PHF. The deck ended up being the overall winner, but unfortunately not in my own hands. I did make Day 2, barely, after a 4-0 start, but I performed very poorly in Day 2 due to a combination of poor luck and poor play on my part due to me feeling terrible with the flu and a nonstop cough. 67th place meant reaching Day 2 meant nothing, as I could’ve just played…
It anchors itself in the ground with its single leg, then basks in the sun. After absorbing enough sunlight, its petals spread as it blooms brilliantly. (Gossifleur)
Zacian/ADP and Mew3/Malamar, My Early BDIFs of Sword & Shield Standard “Now that I’ve had a more genuine chance to give a wide array of decks a try, I’m completely convinced that Zacian V is by far the best deck in the format. It can be paired up with Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX to become a huge offensive threat, or with Melmetal & Lucario-GX in order to become a tankier deck and try to win the battle of resources. Both variants have impressed me so far, and I especially love having the Energy denial aspect in the deck, whilst also having an easier time OHKOing things. Testing has led me…
T8 @ Dallas w/ TrevNoir, Japanese Resources, Anticipated UPR–SSH Archetypes, and Snorlax VMAX for Expanded “My initial testing showed a struggle with Turbo Dark, as it was so easy for them to power up and take OHKOs due to Weakness. I discarded the deck, making a video to showcase it here: One week before the event though, my friend Alex Garcia encouraged us to give it another go as on paper it seemed strong, and we added 2 Weakness Policy to help deal with Turbo Dark. As we played the matchup more, we started to realize how favorable the match actually was, so we decided to high-roll with the deck and hope for the best.…
The Latest on ZoroGarb, ADP Dark, and UltraGarb for Dallas “With that in mind, I have found myself putting in the most work with ZoroGarb, mostly because it feels familiar and very powerful. It combines a wide variety of things that are important in Expanded, such are Item abuse, Ability abuse, and overextension on the Bench usage, whilst having the amazing Trade Ability. Here is the latest draft of the list that I’ve been practicing with the most: The list is of course heavily based on Ian Robb’s winning list from Portland. However, it does feature new inclusions that are both great new cards but also personal preference choices. The…
Top 8 w/ ADPero at San Diego, a Primer on TinaChomp, the Wild Weekend, and Expanded/Dallas Musings “I myself managed to place 7th in San Diego with ADP (or, as I like to call it giving credit to the list creator, ADPero). It was a fantastic weekend for me as I started the tournament off very strongly at 4-0, and then, as expected, I faced even tougher competition and games became much closer to the point where I finished 5-0-4 going into Day 2. I was certainly in the driving position in many games, but Reset Stamps or a few Energy whiffs allowed my opponents to tie those series. I wasn’t super excited to go into Day…
On the Daytona Beach Meta, Double-Victory Weekend w/ Malamar @ Cups, Catron’s Psychic Malamar, and Misc. Thoughts for San Diego “I’d be interested to dig deeper into the decklists and see what percentage of the Mew3 decks ended up playing Wobbuffet LOT in order to try and fully counter Ability ReshiZard, as it was the third most popular deck overall. Of the three most popular decks, only Mew3 managed to make Top 8. This tournament was basically the upside-down LAIC, as we saw ADP and GardEon heavily decline in popularity, yet boast a much better conversion rate for Day 2 and also face off in the finals. Florges Doll Stall ended up being the more successful Mill deck yet again,…
The swirl pattern in this Pokémon’s body is its weakness. If it gets stirred, the swirl loses its shape, and ________ gets dizzy. (Sinistea)
106 articles written
12× Worlds qualifier
Playing since 2003
@tablemon
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