Xander Pero
Author Archive
A Look Back at Glaceon-GX/Barbaracle from Costa Mesa and Towards Zoroark-GX for Standard “I played Glaceon-GX/Barbaracle alongside Travis Nunlist, Christopher Schemanske, Alex Hill, and Frank Percic. All of us adhered to a 58 card skeleton and 2 personal choice cards. Alex, Travis, Frank: Team Flare Grunt + Ghetsis Christopher: Team Rocket’s Handiwork + Ghetsis (Super Rod > Rescue Stretcher as well) Xander (Myself): Team Rocket’s Handiwork + Oranguru UPR The former 3 decided that Team Flare Grunt would be worthwhile in the mirror match to outlast the opponent with Lusamine. Ghetsis was chosen as an all-around strong Supporter. Team Flare Grunt was also useful against random decks, importantly Zoroark-GX when an Enhanced Hammer…
A Recap of Collinsville and First Look into UPR Expanded “My list remained similar to what I posted last week with little modifications to smooth over the list. Lusamine ended up failing again because it was only good in the scenario where I had multiple Energy in hand to be attached in the turn where I lulled. It’s main goal was to recycle Guzma and Parallel City, but I bit the extra spot and included a 2nd Parallel City and Pal Pad instead. Lunala {*} was taken out because I didn’t expect any mill decks to resurge other than Sylveon-GX. Psybeam is useful enough to win that matchup, but a…
A Look at Espeon-GX/Garbodor and a Missing Clover Zoroark-GX List for Collinsville “This deck is disgusting. The goal of it is to set up multiple Zoroark-GX and gradually Trade away all of the useless cards in the deck. This eventually gets you to the 4 Missing Clover combo, which nets you an easy Prize. This deck only needs to take 5 Prizes to win! Even better, there’s Greedy Dice! This card belongs in Zoroark-GX decks because it can be Traded away at no cost when it isn’t prized, yet when it is, there’s a 50/50 chance to yield an extra Prize and potentially steal a game. In today’s format, many games come…
A Review of Night March for Dallas and Ultra Prism Discussion “Listed above is the same 60 card list that Azul Garcia Griego, Michael Pramawat, and Rahul Reddy played to take 3/4 top spots. It’s quite telling that they collaborated and played the exact same list, other than Juniper/Sycamore discrepancies if you count those. There’s nothing too interesting with the list. They decided to keep the deck core together and slip in a 2-2 Zoroark-GX for added consistency throughout the game. Trade is excellent for discarding Night Marchers, unwanted cards, and general fodder throughout the game. Zoroark-GX is also great for tackling Seismitoad-EX, Trevenant BREAK, and Oricorio: Pokemon that feed off…
Xander’s Zoroark/Lycanroc Memphis Recap and Review “I performed less than ideally with a 5-4 finish. This is the worst I’ve done at a Regionals ever, tied with my 5-4 finish in both Orlando and Anaheim Regionals last year. I thankfully got underserved T256 points, but I’m still incredibly disappointed. I played a less than ideal Lycanroc/Zoroark list, was fairly unlucky in my mirror matches, but also played imperfectly. Overall, I made too fancy of a list that is more fitting to Golisopod/Zoroark. Lycanroc/Zoroark doesn’t need as many healing cards, otherwise the deck falls behind on Energy attachments. I think I would’ve done better if I had…
If you’re too loud around it, you risk being torn apart by the claws on its tentacle. This Pokémon is also known as the Forest Witch. (Hatterene)
Xander’s Comprehensive Guide on Golisopod/Zoroark and its Matchups for Memphis “Posted above is the winning list, no surprises here. The skeleton of the list is near perfect, with the only discrepancies in the list being tech cards. These are inherently fluid and changeable based on the foreseen meta. Here’s the list of cards I’ve considered cutting: Mewtwo Mr. Mime 4th Field Blower Mallow All of these have specific uses, yet are unimportant in regard to the deck’s strategy. I’ll find myself discarding these with Trade in any matchup other than the one they’re intended for. A majority of the time cards like Mallow or the 4th Field Blower end up…
Xander’s Thoughts on his London Experiences and the State of Penalties “Leading up to the tournament, as usual, a majority of my “testing” comes from discussing ideas in group chats and reading articles. I don’t have much interest in dedicating myself to creating perfect lists for new archetypes. However, I find it incredibly cool how innovative Tord’s winning list is compared to list standards of the past. I’m glad that deck building is a skill within Pokemon because it adds another element to the competition. As I said in my past article, Drampa/Espeon/Garbodor (with an interchangeable focus) and Gourgeist were my two plays for the tournament. I had brought the cards…
Jumping into an Analysis of Espeon-GX/Garbodor and Gourgeist CIN for European Internationals “As I said previously, there are no earlier tournaments than the weekend of London Internationals where Crimson Invasion can be played. The entire meta is complete theorymon. What I mean by this is that all of the decks are untested within a tournament setting. An expected % of decks is nearly incalculable, because there’s no historical evidence. The amount of Heyfonte hype posts per deck is one of the more reliable sources of data available currently. The lack of tournament results also means lists are going to be different from one player to another, since there isn’t a tried and…
Xander’s Favorite Cards from the New Sets and a Comparison of Drampa-GX and Buzzwole-GX with Garbodor “Although there aren’t as many 5 star cards in the new sets, there are still some I plan to experiment heavily with. Those cards are on the edge of playability, but the ones in this section are those I categorize to be competitive. These cards will find their way into a competitive deck, one way or another, solely because of their strength themselves. Also, keep in mind that the cards listed here may not be the best from the set. I chose them out of interest to explore and share my thoughts on them, rather than to give a tier list.…
Xander’s T4 Run in Vancouver, Garbodor/Drampa vs Gardevoir, and Shining Legends Thoughts “Heading into the tournament, I was thinking about playing Vikavolt/Tapu Bulu. After Hartford’s failure, I was pretty much done with Fire decks. As much as everyone hates the word “playstyle” in Pokemon, there is some basis in the argument that playing certain archetypes leads to better success. This can be chalked up to a higher comfort level with certain decks, rather than a specific style of choice. For example, I’ve continuously performed better with M Gardevoir and Garbodor decks throughout my past two years. I have yet to make Day 2 at a Regionals or above with any other deck…
If you’re too loud around it, you risk being torn apart by the claws on its tentacle. This Pokémon is also known as the Forest Witch. (Hatterene)
A Reflection on Hartford non-Performance & the Garbodor Quartet in Expanded “The past weekend for Ho-Oh/Salazzle was all but extraordinary. In total, 5 of us were playing the exact same 60, and none of us made Day 2. I was the closest with my record of 6-3, but I couldn’t manage to get that last win. I echo Christopher’s sentiments on the deck, but I would play the deck again if I could redo the tournament. The deck never failed me, whereas the poor matchups I hit were the deck’s downfall. There were Golisopod and Metagross decks in the room, but they seemed to elude me continuously. Here’s a record of…
Examining the Tech Options in Hartford Standard, Spanning the Spectrum of Fire, and Sylveon Surprises “As noted in my previous article, our current format revolves around the three best decks. In my opinion, all other decks are automatically Tier 2. They aren’t bad or clunky decks, but lack the brokenness of Gardevoir or Golisopod. As you can see, a lot of the decks I listed are also Stage 2 decks, with Drampa/Garbodor being the exception. I’d also consider Greninja in a class of its own, but that’s for another day. There are certain Pokemon or Trainer cards with a specific purpose. Examples of this include Oranguru and Octillery: both add draw support at a measly…
Examining the RPS Standard Format, Reinventing the Circle, and Exploring Gobs of Golisopod-GX “Pokemon has been home to many Rock-Paper-Scissors (referred to as RPS) formats in the past. This idea follows these conditions: The 3 decks are more popular individually than any other existing decks Each deck in the RPS wheel has an autowin, but also an autoloss All other existing decks must lose to 1 or more of the RPS decks Now, this is a very formal way of classifying a simple, tossed around idea. However, I believe that it’s important to separate a true, RPS format from one that isn’t. Some formats may have self-contained cycles of 3-4 decks, but other decks…
Xander Pero’s 3rd Place Worlds 2017 Report with Espeon/Garbodor “Thursday was the calm before the storm. Most of my friends already arrived, so I hung out with them in the Marriott lobby. It’s a great choice of venue to have some public area for players to hang out before and after the tournament. I played a few Pokemon games, but mostly resorted to other games such as Coup or Codenames. Since I didn’t have to play on Friday, I was extremely relaxed and enjoyed my time. This coming year I hope to get Top 16 again, allowing myself the same luxury. After finishing up, the Lesages, Michael Pramawat, Dakota…
Espeon/Garbodor from NAIC to Now and Decidueye/Vileplume for Worlds “Espeon/Garbodor can survive in a Greninja-based meta, since Greninja scares away its poor matchups. Gardevoir and Volcanion are shunned away by Shadow Stitching, but Garbodor variants will stay. Drampa/Garbodor has a slightly better Greninja and Volcanion matchup, but does worse across the board. It recently took down Liverpool Regionals, similar to Seattle this past May. I believe this occurred because very few people play Espeon/Garbodor compared to Drampa/Garbodor. Other players in turn assume that Espeon-GX is an unfitting partner, and never consider it. Going into Worlds, I would not consider playing Espeon/Garbodor for day 1. The two days are separate—they require…
If this Pokémon senses a strong emotion, it will run away as fast as it can. It prefers areas without people. (Hatenna)
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