127 results for: 0000/00/01
A Redesign Six Weeks in the Making, Hello, and How Are You “The original. Nothing like it! (Or maybe there were thousands of other websites with similar layouts …) This design was created with the (at the time) super popular Atahualpa theme which fell the way of, well, Atahualpa himself after new, better themes were released by the coming horde WordPress developers seeking fortune in the years following. It was an attractive option in 2009 though because it was flexible (up to four columns!) and easy for newbies like myself to customize. The screenshot above was taken to showcase ad placement areas (highlighted in red) for potential advertisers; I have only one…
Guardians Rising Preview Pt. 1 “In my last article, I gushed over Guardians Rising. This set is really going to change the game, and I think it’ll be strictly for the better. Last time, I had the pleasure of covering Tapu Lele-GX and Field Blower, the two best cards in the set. I won’t be covering them again here because you can check out my previous article, but here’s a summary of my thoughts in case you missed it: These are the single two best cards Pokemon has created since Shaymin-EX, unquestionably. Last time it was easy to talk shop, because I only had two cards to worry about. This time, I’ve got what seems like…
Junior/Senior Metagame Analysis for PRC–SUM Standard Tournaments “2 M Gardevoir/Giratina-EX 2 Darkrai/Giratina 1 Yveltal/Garbodor 1 Turbo Darkrai 1 Water Toolbox (Lapras-GX/Manaphy-EX/Palkia-EX) 1 M Mewtwo/Garbodor 2 M Gardevoir/Giratina-EX 1 M Rayquaza 1 Turbo Darkrai 1 M Alakazam/Espeon-GX 1 Decidueye/Vileplume 1 Volcanion 1 Vespiquen Juniors Top 8 decklists for Anaheim and Melbourne can be found at the preceding links. The Juniors metagame seems to be shifting in Standard. Dark decks (Darkrai and Yveltal) were the focus of the division in Dallas, Athens, and Anaheim. But between Anaheim and Melbourne, we’re starting to see lots of decks that seem to be aimed at beating Dark decks. This is especially true when you consider…
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Solgaleo-GX, Seismitoad/Decidueye-GX, Yveltal, and Stealing the Show with Team Skull Grunt “The first option I want to discuss is one that depends heavily on the cards from Sun & Moon: Solgaleo-GX. A Standard version of this deck placed in the top 16 in Anaheim partnered with Lurantis-GX. Although the two partners share very conspicuous synergy, they don’t hold a light to the versatility this deck gains in Expanded. In Expanded, the Energy-manipulation shenanigans reach a whole new level with good ol’ Bronzong PHF. Solgaleo’s switching Ability provides strong synergy with Bronzong’s recovery Ability all game long; the deck doesn’t need much once it gets off the ground. Once the Bronzongs are…
Introducing Hoothoot/Decidueye and Updating Yveltal/Garb, Scizor/Raticate, and Vespiquen/Friends with Sun & Moon for Anaheim “Here we have an updated version of the undisputed BDIF of the PRC–EVO format. While it may not have had very strong showings at the last two major Standard events of the season (Dallas and Athens), this is absolutely a deck you should not forget exists. While the deck has not received a drastic overhaul from Sun & Moon, it has received a couple of new options that I believe will help to solve major issues that were being exploited and catapult the deck back to the forefront of the metagame. Garbodor is an incredibly safe play going into a…
A clay slab with cursed engravings took possession of a ______. The slab is said to be absorbing the ______’s dark power. (Galarian Yamask)
The Philadelphia Big Five and Early Thoughts on Evolutions for Standard “Instead of providing you all with rogue decks or new archetypes, I simply want to show you the five decks I am liking the most. I will be discussing the decks themselves briefly and then explaining some of the cards choices in them that you might not normally see, along with other options. Hopefully this will give you insight on what will commonly be seen this coming weekend. Coming off of a disappointing Worlds finish with the ghost tree, I lost almost all of my faith in Trevenant. After some list adjustments, and William Herrmann’s second-place finish in Phoenix, I have…
Volcanion, Mega Scizor, Mega Mewtwo, and Vespiquen … Plumebox, Yveltal, and Ho-Oh/Ninja Boy “Upcoming Standard Events Pre-Evolutions: Orlando Regionals — Oct. 15–16 Post-Evolutions: Fort Wayne Regionals — Nov. 26–27 I saw this deck being played by many of the Japanese players — such as Masataka Hirano — at the World Championships. It even managed to take two spots in top 16. This is my take on the deck. This deck’s strategy is very simple. You discard Energy with Volcanion-EX for added damage and then accelerate them with Volcanion STS to your other attackers. This deck is one of the fastest decks in the format in my opinion. It can do 120 damage turn 1…
Revisiting Regionals, Adapting Old Favorites, a New Night March, and the Future of Frogs “The only tournaments that we really care about at this point happened on the third weekend of the Spring Regionals series: M Rayquaza won Massachusetts Yveltal/Max Elixir won Utah Night March had exceptional performances in Kansas Vespiquen/Flareon took down Edmonton Honestly, Rayquaza and Night March seem like the only Standard viable decks out of the four, and FCO made little impact on either. The winner of Massachusetts played the most basic speed Rayquaza build you can get. Rayquaza does well in Standard, but takes a hard loss to Night March. Expanded is dominated by Darkness decks, making Rayquaza an exceptional deck…
The PTCGO vs. Hearthstone Article, Part Two “Before I dive into the article there are a few underlying points I want to discuss and I feel are important to establish. 1. I love online gaming and I feel it is the future as far as gaming goes. There could be a very long discussion involving whether or not this is a good thing, with talking points around human interaction, screen time, etc. The truth is though, the convenience of being in your own home and finding a game whenever you want is amazing. There is no traveling, no scheduling conflicts, and relatively minimal costs. In the last…
A Comprehensive Field Guide to Vespiquen “I was motivated by a lot of different players to recognize the potential of Flareon — the precursor of Vesquipen — starting over a year ago playing fun games against Brit Pybas at a Regional Championship. Flareon’s Vengeance does 20 damage plus 10 more damage for each Pokémon in your discard pile. To get a lot of Pokémon in the discard, Brit’s Flareon deck didn’t have the effective and dynamic means (e.g. Battle Compressor, Shaymin-EX) we do today. He had discussed the deck with Jason Klaczynski, and it was clear to me after a handful of games that this deck was…
This hungry Pokémon swallows Arrokuda whole. Occasionally, it makes a mistake and tries to swallow a Pokémon other than its preferred prey. (Cramorant)
Revisiting Mulligans, Benching Out, and First Turn Rules “I’ve spent the most time pondering potential changes to the mulligan rules. The current mulligan rule works like this: If a player has no Basic Pokémon in their opening hand, they reveal their hand to their opponent, shuffle it back into their deck, and draw a new hand (and repeat this process until they do draw a Basic Pokemon). Each time the player is forced to redraw, their opponent has the option to draw an extra card (beyond their original seven). This rule exists to encourage decks to be built with an adequate amount of Basic Pokemon. I feel, however, that it…
42nd Place Junior World Championship Report with Manectric/Tool Drop “As I have told people previously, the Junior meta is heavily informed by the Masters meta, while lagging slightly. With so few tournaments in the post-LTC ban format, I felt like there was very little momentum behind any given deck and the format was a very matchup-based rock-paper-scissors format centering on Landy/Bats, Toad, and Mega Manectric. We spent a lot of time testing a lot of things. Here is a little commentary on our findings: Hippowdon We tested Hippos based on its performance in my deck analysis article, but found that it was surprisingly brittle. Any sort of Energy suppression broke the deck…
Crafting Yveltal for US Nationals (and a Nod to Toad/Bats) “Seismitoad/Crobat has without a doubt been my favorite deck in recent memory. I have played it for one Regional Championship, several League Challenges, and a handful of other local and unsanctioned tournaments. While most of my wins with the deck come from these smaller tournaments, I do think that I have a more than adequate understanding of the deck. I know my win percentage with the deck is somewhere close to 80%, and certainly my biggest regret of this season (so far) is not playing it the first weekend of State Championships where I am confident it would have given…
Mega Rayquaza, Trevenant/Accelgor, Speed Seismitoad, and the Mobile Realm “M Rayquaza-EX has received quite a bit of hype since it was revealed back in March, and it isn’t too surprising that Japanese players have found themselves in a format structured around perfecting or beating M Rayquaza-EX decks. Most players have seemed to lean towards the M Rayquaza-EX/Raichu XY build, which focuses on pairing two of the cards that gain the most from Sky Field. On top of the obvious synergy between extra Bench space and Raichu’s Circle Circuit, being a Lightning type is very important again other M Rayquaza-EX decks. The biggest issue I see with this combo is…
A Case Study on Countering the Meta “Tackling this year’s City Championship metagame proved to be a particularly daunting task in comparison to previous years because I actually had to go back and read most of the cards from all sets released after Plasma Blast due to my absence from the game. For the first three tournaments I decided I would keep it simple to get a feel for the game once again. At Cities number one I played a Donphan deck for the first time, wrecking my way to the finals where I lost to Jake Dudzig in a mirror match. Donphan decks managed to claim…
This Pokémon lived on prehistoric seashores and was able to preserve food with the ice on its body. It went extinct because it moved so slowly. (Arctozolt)
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