Xander Pero
Author Archive
Bio: I started playing in December of 2009 after hearing about Pokémon tournaments from a friend. Before then, I casually collected cards and showed them off during recess. My initial 2.5 years in the Junior Division has led to me to Masters now, where I’m in the middle of my fourth year. I started writing for 6P Free in November, 2016, before fatefully winning Dallas and joining the UG team in February. Outside of Pokémon, I’m a sophomore at University of Illinois studying Industrial Engineering.
Major Accomplishments:
T4 Worlds ’17 (M)
T32 Worlds ’15 (S)
T8 Worlds ’14 (S)
1st D.C. Open w/ Checkmate! ’19
T16 LAIC (M)
T32 NAIC & OIC (M)
T64 EUIC (M)
T8 Nats ’15, ’13 (S)
1st Nats ’11 (J)
2nd Daytona Beach Regionals ’20
T4 Madison Regionals ’19
T4 Philly Regionals ’19
T8 Madison Regionals ’18
1st Roanoke Regionals ’18
1st Portland Regionals ’18
T4 Vancouver Regionals ’17
T4 Mexico Regionals ’17
1st Dallas Regionals ’17
J/S Regionals Stuff
Recapping the Players Cup Finals and the Future of TEU–DAA “This past weekend we saw the final 16 players duke it out over the past few days. Here’s a link to the full results from those players; I’ll be covering some notable archetypes and ultimately discuss why I think things panned out how they did. Finals VOD Links Preshow: Day 1: Day 2: Lucario & Melmetal-GX/Zacian V dominated the tournament, finishing 1st and 2nd with the same exact list. Kudos to Jack Millar and Matthew Burris for this great accomplishment. I know that when I’ve built decks in the past, it’s been rewarding to succeed and equally rewarding to watch…
A Discussion on Cubing and Using Tabletop Simulator “If you haven’t downloaded Tabletop Simulator yet, now’s your chance. It’s $20 on Steam, which is entirely worth it if anyone else you know owns it—the fun is in playing with friends. Now, whether it’s creating a deck, cube, or simply messing with cards, the first task is subscribing to RomyKing’s Steam Workshop with all of the card information. Then, when you boot up Tabletop Simulator and create a lobby, you can load it under your list of “Workshops.” If it doesn’t pop up immediately, there’s a tab called “Game” on the upper bar. Once you’ve loaded in, you’ll see…
Analyzing the Results of the Players Cup Kickoff Invitational and Limitless Invitational “While analyzing, it’s important to realize that the Players Cup Invitational actually happened two weeks before it was broadcast. This means that it was played with the mindset of Limitless Q4, which occurred on the same weekend. It’s possible that different decks/lists would have been chosen if the tournament was a few weeks later—namely Spiritomb. I’m only going to cover Spiritomb, Dragapult VMAX, and Zacian V in this article. Blacephalon UNB and PikaRom are the other two decks in the popular five, but nothing drastic changed from those decks since Limitless Q4 or even Q3. Their average placements across both…
Investigating the Results of Limitless Qualifier #3, Plus My Glaceon-GX/Barbaracle Decklist for PokéStats Old Format Tournament #4 and Initial Thoughts on the Players Cup “The idea of a Pokemon-created online tournament series is amazing. I’m glad that organizations like Limitless and PokéStats have done a great job of organizing their own tournaments, but the fact that TPCi is getting involved takes it to another level. There’s a greater possible outreach through pokemon.com than on Twitter and each organization’s website. There are certainly players who didn’t know about Limitless’s tournaments that know about the Players Cup, and even more people who are motivated to play for the prospect of a free trip to an IC. I haven’t reviewed Tournament Rep (mentioned here) or the prospect…
Philosophies for Becoming a Better Player During the Offseason (or This Unexpected Break in Organized Play) “The first step is to label where you want to improve. Quantifiable goals are best, but it’s difficult to quantify without rattling off hoped tournament placings. If possible, narrow down the area of your game that you want to improve. Do you want to learn one deck really well? Learn more decks? Sequencing? Playing faster? There are a million questions to ask. From there, you should formulate a plan of improvement. What strategy will you employ to actually achieve your goal? Watch VODs? Play many games on PTCGO? Hire a coach? Once again, the possibilities go on. There’s reason to…
Though it has a gentle disposition, it’s also very strong. It will quickly freeze the snowball on its head before going for a headbutt. (Galarian Darmanitan)
My Final ADP/Zacian V List for OCIC, Expanded in a Nutshell, and Shock Lock w/ SSH “If OCIC was tomorrow, I’d play this. It’s widely accepted that ADP/Zacian V is the best deck, and there has been little evidence to debunk this. The deck works, and being able to OHKO almost everything and take an additional Prize when doing so is powerful—who knew? -1 Phione CEC +1 Oranguru UPR -1 Tapu Fini UNM +1 Jirachi TEU -1 Metal Energy +1 Water Energy These changes are pretty self-explanatory. Phione and Tapu Fini, though good cards, are very situational and perhaps not worth running. My main reason for including Phione was as a counter to Galarian Obstagoon SSH…
Sword & Shield Set Rundown, ADP/Zacian V the BDIF, and Concept Lists for Hammertime and Fire Box “I’m going to run down the set list and give some brief thoughts on the strongest cards. This section is not meant to be all-inclusive, but rather an inspiration for your own deck-building adventures. I think Rillaboom is severely underrated amongst most players. On top of having the traditional Rare Candy method of getting put into play, Rillaboom can also take advantage of Rowlet & Alolan Exeggutor-GX. While it doesn’t have a plethora of strong attackers, Rillaboom can make use of Venusaur & Snivy-GX, Dhelmise V, Rowlet & Alolan Exeggutor-GX, Celebi & Venusaur-GX, and Pheromosa & Buzzwole-GX. Each of these…
Closing the Book on RoxieChomp in Standard, and GardEon for Dallas “I’ll be brief here, because I know UPR–CEC Standard is waning and unimportant. I had a string of League Cups and Bochum Regionals where I played RoxieChomp, so I’d like to post my list here one final time for anyone going to tournaments before Sword and Shield sets come out. Not that anyone cares now, but I think TinaChomp will still be an incredibly strong deck with the rule changes and the new cards. Time will tell what new additions should be made, and which version (Roxie or non-Roxie) will prevail. Take this list to League Cups! It has good…
Exploring Expanded Garbodor Variants: Zoroark-GX, Ultra Necrozma, and Rogue Giratina-EX/Welder “Zoroark-GX/Garbodor has been a staple of the Expanded format for as long as I can remember. Lists have remained incredibly similar over time due to the unchanging core of the deck: Brigette and Colress. These two Supporters define the engine and contribute to the deck’s low variability between games. Garbotoxin always counters an entire format, Riotous Beating is a good attack, and Trade glues the components together. As you’ll see, the list is quite similar to all those before it. To start my testing, I took Ian Robb’s list from Portland and made a few changes to account for the…
Recapping My 2nd Place Rosa ADP List from Daytona Beach “My parents and I decided to head to Florida early for Thanksgiving. We spent some time in the Cape Coral area staying with the Retzloffs and there just so happened to be a League Challenge on Wednesday night. Lacking a better idea, I took the ADP list from my last article and included some of the untested ideas I wanted to mess with. It’s not worth including the full list here, so here are the important inclusions: Absol TEU, Phione CEC Custom Catchers Choice Helmet, Counter Gain Cynthia instead of Lillie Everything else was just the bread-and-butter ADP list that…
When it heats up, its body temperature reaches about 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. It lashes its body like a whip and launches itself at enemies. (Centiskorch)
A Quick Recap on Perfection from LAIC and ADP for Daytona Beach “To the surprise of some, AbilityZard reappeared and took down the tournament. I attribute this success to the deck’s unacknowledged strength, and mainly to an inability to properly deal with it. Very few decks can stop AbilityZard when it’s rolling. Even so, the decks that can stop it are on the outskirts of the meta: Doll Stall and Blacephalon/Pidgeotto. The Naganadel & Guzzlord-GX/Mismagius deck has a good matchup against it on paper, but “on paper” is where AbilityZard outshines other decks. When you assume that both decks set up reasonably well, Welder outshines all else. I remember a conversation I had…
UPR–CEC Meta Developments, Updating Pidgeotto Control, and Asides on Checkmate and Oranguru UPR “At the beginning, I posed lots of questions. Now, my job is to answer them. I’ll specifically get into Pidgeotto Control later on in the article, as that’s the main topic I’ll be discussing. For now, I’ll do a brief overview of the decks I expect to gain (or change) a lot from the new set release. PikaRom will flop due to the absolute lack of card support it received in Cosmic Eclipse. The problem isn’t even Mega Lopunny & Jigglypuff-GX; the strong decks are too difficult. To start, ADP should be able to wipe the floor with PikaRom because…
Dissecting and Improving Pidgeotto Control from AC/Cologne for Knoxville “Frankly, I wasn’t surprised to see Pidgeotto Control do well. It can do great things in 50-minute Bo3 with a long Game 1 and dismantle inexperienced players if they make a mistake. That being said, it requires a fair bit of knowledge to play, and mistakes with the deck don’t go unpunished. Two completely different variants did well: Sander Wojcik’s teched version and Grant Manley’s Jirachi version. Sander wrote a great post in Heyfonte summarizing the subtleties in his and Grant’s list, so I greatly urge you to check it out. Both lists are also available online on Heyfonte and Limitless.…
Shifts in Standard, Malamar: the Squid-surgence, Sequencing, and a Checkmate Update “Though I’m at a distance from the competitive scene, it’s still quite easy to keep track of what’s doing well because of social media posts. Almost all tournaments have their Top 8 posted, and most sponsored players post their list after each tournament. It’s been interesting to see the meta shift due to changes in popular opinion. For one, AbilityZard has become AbilityNoZard, with most lists playing 0 Reshiram & Charizard-GX! On another note, Malamar has become one of the popular decks of the format. Most notable players have always spurned Malamar, instead choosing to play more consistent decks. Magically,…
A Complete Guide to Naganadel-GX Checkmate w/ the DC Open Winning List “The idea began with the first list I posted here on SixPrizes. That list revolved around a Mars engine and utilized the Reset Stamp + Mars combo. Once I created that list, I was unmotivated to improve it and couldn’t think of any new ideas to improve some of its bad matchups. PikaRom won with speed, Green’s ReshiZard won with healing, and Dark Box destroyed the deck with its plethora of win conditions. The deck didn’t have a strong answer to Malamar, as the opponent needed to bench a GX in order to set up a single-turn checkmate. Simply put,…
The colder they get, the more energetic they are. They freeze their breath to make snowballs, using them as ammo for playful snowball fights. (Galarian Darumaka)
71 articles written
9× Worlds qualifier
Playing since 2009
@xanderpero
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