138 results for: joltik phf
Future Points, Likely Competition, and Other Decks to Watch For in St. Louis (This Weekend!) “I originally planned to include a short write-up of the Expanded format and my thoughts on its development but Mike Fouchet’s summary from earlier in the week accurately represents my view. The metagame seems to be shifting away from BREAK Pokemon, even without the addition of Giratina. The only thing that I want to add is that I think Pokemon-GX could actually have a strong impact on Expanded in the next few months. Few things in the format can reliably take down multiple Pokemon with 240 HP in a game, and they will instead have to prey on non-evolved forms…
Philadelphia Regionals Report, Top Performers, Meta Trends, and Future Frog “After a growing feeling of discontent with the decks in Expanded during my testing, my friends back in Michigan told me they were finding Night March to still have a strong place in the metagame. While it seemed like Karen would finally eradicate everyone’s least favorite deck, very few decks had any real reason to play Karen. Even if they included a copy, Night March could play around it by conserving Battle Compressor and Puzzle of Time in the early game to restore their damage output. Realistically, Karen would have to be paired with Seismitoad-EX and/or used multiple times per…
Top 10 Picks for Philadelphia Regionals & Honorable Mentions “The first deck I want to talk about is the Groudon deck piloted by Stefan Tabaco to top 8 in Phoenix, shown above. Every time there is a Regional in the West Coast it seems like Stefan is finding a way to make Groudon viable. He ran a very unique list with a slim Groudon line and plenty of techs. The deck does run 4 copies of Korrina as well as 4 Tropical Beach in order to aid you in finding your 2 copies of Groudon-EX quickly. The 2 Regirock are great at getting back Stadiums as well as stalling with Focus…
The Creation of Vespiquen/Tech, Revisiting Orlando, From Standard to Expanded, and Favorites for Philadelphia “Going through and analyzing the deck-building process can provide wonderful insight for even the best players. I hope you can draw some parallels from the way this deck was constructed and how we prepared for the main event. Even though the deck looks a bit like a binder-drop, every card was deliberately included. For reference, here was the list myself and Ross played on Day 2 (and quite a few piloted on Day 1 but unfortunately did not make it through the grind): 4-4 Vespiquen: This was our main attacker and should not need too much explanation, but one thing to…
Why Night March Ain’t Carin’ About Karen “Let’s start by taking a look at the Expanded meta after Phoenix Regionals and before the release of Karen, which consisted mainly of the “Big Three”: Dark variants, Trevenant, and Greninja. After Karen’s release, however, the meta will change tremendously. Since people are now largely disregarding Night March because of how bad Karen is for the deck, Trevenant loses one its main selling points (its strong Night March matchup), and therefore will not be played as much. Dark gains credibility since it no longer has to worry about troublesome Night March encounters, and in turn that makes Trevenant an even…
If this weak Pokémon is by itself, a mere child could defeat it. But if ______ has friends to help it train, it can evolve and become much stronger. (Dreepy)
11th Place Phoenix Regionals Report and Plays for Orlando “Phoenix was the very first Regionals of the season. Everyone expected a mix of the same decks from past Regionals with a Vileplume Toolbox deck or two thrown in here and there. I arrived in Phoenix early on Friday morning to get in some test games with friends and get a read on what everyone was playing. The majority of people I talked to were playing some kind of Yveltal variant. This made me lean heavily towards Mega Rayquaza but I was very wary of having a terrible Night March matchup. Mega Rayquaza’s poor Night March matchup ultimately eliminated it from being a possibility. I did…
Phoenix Regionals Recap, the Impact of Karen on Expanded, and Expanded Updates for Philly “Like I discussed in my last article, I’ve known for a while that I’d be playing Night March at this event. For one thing, my time to test started to evaporate after that piece was published, but more critically, nothing arose that encouraged alteration of that decision. While I disagree fundamentally with the “Night March is all anyone talks about” stance, I’m just as ready to be done with it as everyone else, so I’m going to forgo too much justification for the choice and point back to my last piece to cover that point. I’m not sure how to feel about the fact that I have this…
Is 500 CP Too Much, Los Tres Grandes, Yveltal Moves, and the Night Machine “After last week’s announcement that we’ll be required to earn 500 Championship Points this season in order to qualify for Worlds, I saw a smattering of posts on Facebook and Twitter from disheartened players who now believe that their chance of earning an invitation to Worlds is much closer to zero than in previous years. Before you jump to the same conclusion, there are several other factors I believe we should be looking at in order to judge this season’s competitive structure in comparison to those of past seasons. We’ve already seen that several of the smaller Regional Championships (Edmonton, Vancouver, Kitchener, Kansas City, New…
On the Big Play! Pokémon Changes, Rotation Implications, and Three Decks That Could Dominate New Standard “I’m sure that everyone has seen or heard about the major changes that are going to occur in the upcoming 2016–2017 competitive season which were published Monday on Pokemon.com. Almost everything in the press release is extremely good news that will lead to a brighter future for this game, especially the larger cash payouts and higher number of tournaments for everyone to play in. I’ll break down each of these huge changes and discuss what they mean for the new competitive season (compared to previous seasons). Every single change that TPCi is making this new season will basically be a test-run for…
Tier List for Worlds ’16, the Top and High Tier Examined, Potential Rogue Forces, and the New Standard “Top Tier Night March Trevenant BREAK Vespiquen/Vileplume High Tier Greninja BREAK Waterbox Darkrai/Giratina Mid Tier Toad/Bats Zoroark BREAK Yveltal/Gallade Good Waterbox … 60-40 Even Darkrai/Giratina … 50-50 Greninja BREAK … 50-50 Night March … 50-50 Vespiquen/Vileplume … 50-50 Yveltal/Gallade … 50-50 Zoroark BREAK … 50-50 Bad Toad/Bats … 40-60 Trevenant BREAK … 40-60 Surprise, surprise! The deck that never goes away and keeps getting buffed is at the top of the list. If you don’t feel comfortable with a deck going at least 50-50 against Night March, don’t play it for Worlds. Simple as that. If you’re searching for a…
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)
Nationals Report, My Retrospective Play, On the Supremacy of Night March, and GOing Home “As I spoke about in great detail in my last piece, the Water Box deck had captivated my interest. Despite my teammates Curtis Lyon and Mees Brenninkmeijer having somewhat run-of-the-mill results (a top 32 and 11th place finish, respectively), I was optimistic in their views on the deck and continued to test the deck exclusively. In my games, we became split on whether or not Trainers’ Mail was needed in the deck. Everyone knows that the card is basically never bad, but is it really necessary? The debate raged on as Nationals grew closer and closer and I inevitably decided to…
Thoughts on Night March, Trevenant, Zygarde/Plume, Mega Alakazam, and Gallade/Octillery “I know this is getting really old. I was hoping for Karen to be released so I could see this deck crash and burn, but sadly this did not come to fruition. Just like every PTCG article will state in the upcoming weeks, this is the deck to beat and it will see the most play during the final tournament of the season. Since my previous articles highlighted variants with Maxie’s and Octillery, this Night March write-up be about the version I have a newfound respect for after playing against it during Day 2 of Nationals. Chris Siakala’s Top 8…
Night March and Decks That Can Beat Night March “Pokemon Ranger will be the most meta-impacting card from the new set since we are not getting Karen. This card makes Night March even better than it already was. Pokemon Ranger deals with four of Night March’s biggest threats: Seismitoad-EX, Giratina-EX, Jolteon-EX, and Jirachi XY67. I feel these cards are nearly unplayable now because of Pokemon Ranger. Pokemon Ranger also nullifies a few decks that performed very well at US Nationals. Waterbox takes the biggest hit from Pokemon Ranger since many of the deck’s win conditions are met by effects of attacks that lock opponents out of the game. Another deck that…
OshaWaterBottle’s Top 32 Nationals 2016 Tournament Report “With a long day of traveling ahead, I woke up at around 4 AM and had to be at the airport around 5 AM to allow extra time in case security lines were long. The flight departed from Lindbergh Field at around 6:30 AM and headed to Denver for a layover since Southwest didn’t have any direct flights to Columbus. Each flight was around two hours long, which isn’t terrible, but got worse with layovers. My mom and I made it to Columbus at around 3 PM, and my friend Dominic was waiting there to take us to our hotel…
Joe Hebert’s Top 4 Seniors US Nationals 2016 Tournament Report “For the weeks leading up to Nationals I was completely undecided on what to play. I looked at a couple of the successful decks from European and Canadian Nationals and didn’t find a deck that I really liked. I expected for there to be tons of Mega Rayquaza and Waterbox at the tournament based on the results of those previous events. Metal: I had tested this deck and it seemed very consistent which was appealing for the biggest tournament of the year. Something that was not appealing about the deck was its matchups. I felt it lost to both Night March…
It whirls around in the wind while singing a joyous song. This delightful display has charmed many into raising this Pokémon. (Gossifleur)
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