1,230 results for: Underground
Thoughts on the Format as a Whole (Spoiler: It’s Fast) and Centiskorch VMAX/Scoop Up Net “Oh where to start? ADP? Sure, why not. Unless you’ve been living under a proverbial rock in regards to the Pokémon community these last few weeks, you’ve surely heard the calls for a ban of ADP. And you’ve also heard the people defending the card. I’ve mostly been on the side of the former, as I believe that ADP is bad for the game as a whole. There’s a lot that can be said about ADP right now. I personally believe ADP is more of a symptom of the actual problem rather than the whole problem. The game has sped…
Should ADP Be Banned? and Water Mewtwo & Mew-GX w/ Frosmoth (aka Wet Mew3) “I started playing competitive Pokémon TCG in 2012, and since then I have been able to play in some formats where we had extremely strong attacks that ended up impacting the game a lot. These decks weren’t always the best, but they somehow made the game quite different than it would have been otherwise. The examples that stick out most in my mind are (1) the Item lock decks made possible by Seismitoad EX’s Quaking Punch in 2014–2016 and (2) the Night March deck in 2016–2017. At the time of Seismitoad EX, the format was very limited because there were…
On the Auspicious Arrival of Our New, Virtual Face of the Pokémon Trading Card Game “To understand the monumental mentality shift that happened for me through quarantine, we first need to look back on my mentality before quarantine and COVID-19. Simply, this season wasn’t incredible for me. Sure, I started off with a Top 32 finish in Atlantic City, but I lacked a follow-up Day Two finish, with my hopes being blown out by back-to-back autolosses and poor deck choices. Everyone has off tournaments, slumps, and seasons, even the best of the best, but that didn’t help me feel any better. I’m sure some complications from my senior year in high school, like applying to…
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…
Thoughts on the Now Completed POG 2020 and Five Decklists to Kickstart TEU–DAA “I loved this deck so much before rotation. Sure, I completely butchered my original list in order to play Pokemon Catcher in POG, but the deck was really solid when built correctly. Aside from Escape Board, this deck didn’t really lose anything to rotation. In order to combat the loss of Escape Board, I decided to cut Jirachi and add more consistency cards. This list is frighteningly close to what I should have played in the UPR–DAA POG format. Obviously Jirachi is gone, but that might not be the end of the world. This deck is going to want to…
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)
Post-Rotation Inteleon VMAX and Vikavolt V, the Two Ends of the Lightning-Nerfed Spectrum “I believe that the post-rotation metagame favors Inteleon VMAX for three main reasons: No PikaRom or any big Lightning decks Good matchup vs. Eternatus VMAX Favorable typing against Fire decks, like Centiskorch VMAX It’s funny how a Pokémon so mediocre in the previous format can theoretically become super suitable in the current format. Inteleon VMAX has two good attacks and they have a direct impact on the main matchups of the new format, which are ADPZ, Eternatus VMAX, and Fire decks in general. I don’t think Inteleon VMAX is a super powerful deck, like Eternatus VMAX which can hit for…
Aggro Vikavolt V for the POG “To start, this is a pretty aggressive take on the deck. There are lists that are more control oriented which isn’t by any means wrong, I am just a bigger fan of this version of the deck. I think that Vikavolt is extremely strong in the expected meta and can handle pretty much anything that you throw at it due to its versatility of being able to lock your opponent while also being able to win Prize trades with big swings. This take on the deck wants to Item lock your opponent early in combination with cards like Crushing Hammer,…
Giving Mareep/Dragonite Its Time in the Spotlight “When I decided to start toying with Mill in Darkness Ablaze (DAA), I recognized that, despite my love for Cinccino, I’d have to look towards Mareep Mill. Dragapult’s place in the meta is severely compromised with the introduction of Eternatus VMAX, which looks to be a strong contender that completely steamrolls Dragapult. As a result of that, Mareep has its chance to shine. Looking at Mareep, I had two viable options: (1) Traditional Mareep Mill and (2) a newcomer to the metagame, Mareep/Dragonite Mill. The debut of Mareep/Dragonite Mill came via the unofficial Japan Nationals 2020 tournament, where the pilot…
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…
Hot Thoughts on the POG Format (UPR–DAA), All the Decks I Want to Work On More, Eternatus VMAX Two Ways, and How, Now, to Play Ultimate Mewtwo “So far, in watching and playing, the more aggressive build of Vikavolt V feels like the best deck in the format. Vikavolt V’s Paralyzing Bolt is of course reminiscent of Seismitoad-EX’s Quaking Punch, and the effect on the format has felt the same. Item lock so severely cripples the consistency of many decks by simply limiting cards like Quick Ball, Acro Bike, Escape Board, and Switch, forcing players to reinvent their decks. Where Vikavolt V differs from Seismitoad-EX, however, is its support. Our new favorite bug can exploit Electropower, Tapu Koko Prism Star, and Thunder Mountain Prism Star to one-shot…
This gluttonous Pokémon only assists people with their work because it wants treats. As it runs, it crackles with electricity. (Yamper)
Malamar for the POG (UPR–DAA) and Charizard VMAX Post-Rotation (TEU–DAA) “That’s right everyone. Malamar isn’t gone just yet. I feel obligated to at least try and make this deck viable for the last event it will ever be legal for. Michael Catron posted a list on his Twitter last week, which is going to be pretty similar to mine. This is something that’s mostly been sitting in the back of my head for a month or so, but I did at least put it into PTCGO at some point. Aside from the sentimental value that it has for me, Malamar is actually not that terrible of a deck in this…
Charizard VMAX/Volcarona-GX and ADPZ for the Post-Rotation Format (TEU–DAA) “The deck is somewhat inconsistent and slow compared to other decks of the format like ADPZ or Eternatus VMAX. To tell you the truth, when I started testing Charizard VMAX I didn’t expect much from it, but little by little I started to understand the strength of the deck. It is true that the deck has its problems, but we also need to realize that the format has changed. There is no Pokémon capable of KOing an opponent’s VMAX Pokémon in a single attack without a tremendous effort behind it. Even with a little inconsistency and delay to be able…
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…
The Debut of Gothita Lock “The main idea behind the deck is to get rid of the opponent’s hand and then infinitely lock them by pivoting between Gothita and Drilbur. You can accomplish this by using Reset Stamp late in the game and following it up with Jessie and James in order to remove the few cards that your opponent got off of Reset Stamp, or you can use Jessie and James opportunistically if your opponent overextends their hand. However, it’s likely that most games will follow the Reset Stamp strategy. From there you use Fortune Eye to arrange your opponent’s top 5 cards in…
Out in T64 of the Players Cup, Thoughts on the Event, and a Darkness Ablaze Set Review “For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you already know that I’m no longer in the event, and it is somewhat ambiguous if I’m even allowed to publish my list yet, but it’s 2 cards off from the list I published a while back. I went into the event knowing that no matter what deck I played my run would be determined by the matchups I would hit. So, me being me, I decided that taking a very mediocre PikaRom matchup was somehow a good idea. For four whole rounds, my rather unintelligent view was valid. LucaMetal/Zacian pretty…
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)