Pablo’s Memphis Recap and First Looks at Expanded Rayquaza and Garbodor/Spread “I went with Zoroark-GX/Lycanroc-GX as I didn’t think much changed at Philadelphia. Obviously Shrine of Punishment decks were still a thing, but I felt this deck had a chance to beat anything with its increased draw power and Lycanroc’s Ability allowing you to effectively play ‘3 Supporters’ each turn. We had Frankfurt Regionals happen in between these events and one particular list caught my eye. The 31st place ZoroRoc list from that event had 4 Lillie and basically no 1-ofs, which I really liked. It was more focused on solidifying your turn 1 and therefore establishing a strong start every…
Examining Safe Standards for Memphis and Profiling Scizor-GX “What I was playing before Philadelphia was only a few cards from what got Top 8 and won in Australia. However, to my biggest surprise, both lists were missing Steven’s Resolve. I’m really in love with the card as I talked about in my previous article. Other than that, I’ve switched out to playing 3 Dhelmise and 3 Rayquaza-GX, rather than a 2/4 split respectively. Here’s what the list currently looks like: I made that change for a couple of reasons. First, usually 2 Dhelmise is enough to carry you through a game against the Shrine decks. However, if you…
Considering Philly’s Top Performers and Looking Ahead to Memphis “As the biggest event of the season yet, and first premier tournament in North America, we had the first scenario where there were more players at 19 points than a Top 32 and thus a total of 78 players came back to play in Day 2. I myself couldn’t break through, as I lost my win and in round in a demoralizing fashion by flipping double Tails on Timer Ball. I’ve since sworn not to play the card ever again, but more on that later. So, there was no increase in prizes to accommodate the bigger Day 2’s and thus,…
Examining the Supporter Situation, Pokémon Possibilities, and Zoroark/Garbodor for SM-on “So rotation just happened, and after 7 long years, for the first time we don’t have the ‘discard and draw 7’ effect that Professor Juniper or Sycamore provided, along with no more N. Those are the 2 biggest losses in terms of Supporters, as they’re both so incredibly good and have been around for very very long. So the question is: how do we adapt our decks and what are the major changes to the format? Well, to start us off I want to talk about a couple of cards which we lost that will probably end up being beneficial…
Pablo’s Look at Buzzwole, Zoroark/Control, Zoroark/Garbodor, and Rayquaza for Worlds “UPDATE: Since I wrote my article over the weekend, the ARG results came out and one deck in particular caught my eye: Buzzwole/Garbodor with all non-GX attackers. Since then, I’ve been trying out the deck and modifying it a little bit, and it has now become a consideration for my decks to play at Worlds for this upcoming weekend. Here’s the list that I’ve been using and wound up taking to a League Cup the weekend before Worlds, netting me a solid Top 4: The decks overall strategy is to abuse the fact that it plays ZERO Pokemon-GX, and thus…
Sudden climate change wiped out this ancient kind of _______. This Pokémon absorbs others’ life-force through its branches. (Galarian Corsola)
Pablo’s Take on Zoroark/Magcargo for Celestial Storm Standard “The triangle that we had before, with Buzzwole-GX, Zoroark-GX and Malamar is still very much a thing. NAIC showed us, though, that Zoroark-GX was up to the task and a lot of the top players favored it over Buzzwole due to its inherent consistency and ability it gives you to make better decisions than your opponent. I feel like I’ve been saying this all season, but Zoroark-GX is a card that really favors skill, as the more cards you have access to during a turn, the more ‘optimal’ your decisions can be. Here’s an example of a typical/average Buzzwole or…
Looking Behind to NAIC and Looking Ahead to Celestial Storm’s Worlds Format “R1 Buzzwole/Lycanroc WW R2 Espeon/Garbodor WW R3 Tord Zoroark LL R4 Tord Zoroark LL R5 Ultra Necrozma/Malamar LWW R6 Greninja LWL R7 (no show) W R8 Xerneas BREAK WLT R9 Lapras LWW As you can see, had I played Zoroark/Golisopod, I would’ve probably ended up beating the Buzzwole/Lycanroc and Espeon/Garbodor decks, then proceeded to lose to the auto-loss matchup of the resource denial Zoroark deck. Would’ve then went on to beat a Malamar deck, only to succumb to Greninja’s Shadow Stiching in Round 6. Perhaps I would’ve lost Round 1 to Buzzwole, or perhaps won Round 6, but hindsight is…
A Review of Zoroark/Golisopod and its Matchups for NAIC 18 “Since the decks inception at the EUIC back in November, it has been a mainstay in the metagame with varying degrees of popularity. Ranging from the most played deck, to the worst Zoroark variant, this deck has been through it all. Up until recently, it was deemed ‘not good enough,’ as we’re currently in a OHKO format. However, on paper, this deck’s damage output indeed doesn’t seem as impressive as dealing over 200 damage with Knuckle Impact or Photon Geyser. Yet, the combination of typing, consistency, and versatility actually makes this deck the strongest Zoroark variant for this particular metagame.…
Golisopod/Zoroark’s Return to Prominence and Malamar’s Mexico Resurgence “Hello 6P! Welcome back to a new article! The weekend just passed and we’re celebrating two things. One, I won one of my local SPE’s, after two Top 16 placements in the previous installments, which felt really good. I used Golisopod/Zoroark for the tournament, despite the assumed bad match up against Buzzwole/Lycanroc, but I’ll get into more on that later. Two, we’re back to number 2 in the Latin America ranking, sitting pretty comfortable at 1495 CP. After a rocky 2018 year, it’s genuinely a big relief to have a 500+ CP point gap between me and 5th place, which…
Exploring the Triangle of Matchups in Forbidden Light Standard “Good old Buzzwole. This is a deck which I’ve been a fan of (when Memphis happened) then hated (at Sydney) and then felt meh about (at Toronto). The evolution of the deck has finally peaked with Beast Ring and baby Buzzwole, and on paper it has all the mid game stability it could’ve ever wanted thanks to those 2 cards. Now, if you’ve followed my Youtube or Twitch channel, or my previous comments on Buzzwole, I was a 0 Max Elixir + 4 Beast Ring enthusiast. That however has now changed, and I must admit I was wrong. Max Elixir…
Cunning and cautious, this Pokémon survives by stealing food from others. It erases its tracks with swipes of its tail as it makes off with its plunder. (Nickit)
Expanded SLC Recap, Fighting for Toronto, and First Looks at Buzzwole and Malamar/Necrozma for FLI Standard “This weekend showed that Zoroark has become predictable to an extent, and decks are adapting more successfully. We saw a huge surge of Fighting type decks, an important Drampa-GX/Garbodor presence, along with a Korrina based Gardevoir-GX deck, and even Sableye/Garbodor have a strong showing (with the latter taking the big win in the end). With only a single Zoroark deck in the Top 8, maybe the format will prove to be more varied than it felt to me personally this weekend. I’m not sure I can say I’d be happy with a more varied format that includes decks like Sableye/Garbodor…
Pablo’s Top 4 Picks for the Latin American International Championships (ft. Zoroark) “I’ve had an itch for this deck ever since I lost to it in Top 4 of Memphis, and although I haven’t played it at a big event yet, I think it’s one of those 50/50 decks that I mentioned before, with good or even matchups across the board, except for Vikavolt/Tapu Bulu. I definitely regret not having used it in Sydney, which is the event I tested it the most for. However, all of that testing still applies and I’ve also played around with it recently, and this is the list that I currently have sleeved: Now, here…
Pablo’s First Look at Top Contenders from Forbidden Light “Beast Ring – Search your deck for up 2 Basic Energy, reveal them, and attach them to 1 of your Ultra Beast Pokemon. Then, shuffle your deck. There’s a very clear focus on Ultra Beasts at the moment, as the Prize mechanics and this card will definitely be making an immediate impact upon release. It is an immediate inclusion into Buzzwole-GX based decks, but I think it’ll have other uses too. Buzzwole-GX has a really good first attack for one Fighting energy, but Knuckle Impact is the real game changer in my opinion, as usually, with Strong Energy, Choice Band…
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Investigating the Strengths of Lucario-GX, A Pair of Play Options, and Espeon/Garbodor “I feel (and genuinely it’s purely a feeling) like this weekend will finally be poised to be the best one for success of the deck. First off, Ability lock is always welcome, and we’ve even seen Zoroark decks attempt to play an Ability lock with Garbotoxin and Bursting Balloon. We’ve also seen quite a few combinations with Dusk Mane Necrozma-GX and Buzzwole-GX have some success, with the latter proving the most successful. So, Ability lock is appealing—and we have it. Secondly, Psychic typing is really good at the moment, as it’s the best way to counter Buzzwole-GX, and coincidentally, Lucario-GX.…
Pablo on Costa Mesa’s Expanded Format and Charlotte Standard “I will, of course, let our other writers go more in depth with a report on Glaceon-GX/Barbarcle, as they created/tested it, but I think it’s a great idea in the same line up as Drampa-GX/Garbodor decks. Glaceon-GX stops Abilities (like Garbotoxin does) and Barbarcle locks out Energy (like Drampa-GX does). They both have pros and cons of course, but that shows how hard you must go for in order to ensure you can actually counter Zoroark-GX in Expanded. Both decks included Sudowoodo GRI as well in order to make it even harder for Zoroark players to get OHKOs. Now, the…
When angered, it launches tea from its body at the offender’s mouth. The tea causes strong chills if swallowed. (Polteageist)
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