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A Grimer (Primer!) on Competitive Pokémon TCG Play “So you’ve got the right behaviours, but what do you do with them? Before you dive in and start doing things for their own sake, it’s worth understanding the structure you play within. If your goal is to earn a day 1 invitation, what threshold do you need to reach, and how should you approach it? Using the 2017/2018 season, you would have needed 400 points in North America. The season is divided in 4 Quarters, which each had a best finish limit of 100CP at local events with uncapped Regionals/SPE/Internationals. Much derided for the ability to “just win 8…
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An In-Depth Guide to Straight Zoroark-GX for Worlds “Straight Zoroark-GX is the most recent deck I’ve been experimenting with at local events. Compared to Zoroark-GX/Magcargo, it runs a higher count of specific cards so that it doesn’t need to expend Puzzle of Time or go into Oranguru UPR as frequently. As an example, most Zoroark-GX/Magcargo lists run 1 Max Potion, while Straight would run 2-3. This makes it much easier for Straight to keep up in healing and have Puzzle of Time for important turns later. The other added benefit of no Magcargo is the lack of a free prize in Zoroark-GX mirror. When both players play optimally…
Testing Notes, Meta Review, and Top Picks for Worlds “Double digit games with over a dozen new ideas has left me feeling like I’ve spent countless hours taking the long way to confirm what seemed to be the biggest initial fear with this set: all of the viable cards in this set simply do not have the firepower to keep up with the current meta. Unfortunately, by current meta I mean Zoroark-GX and Buzzwole-GX decks. While I know both cards have a plethora of viable partners, I’ll be reviewing these concepts from a more top level perspective rather than individual match ups among variants. Rayquaza-GX is fine, but I…
The Lowdown on the Likeliest Lists for Zoroark/Magcargo for Worlds ’18 “Like I said above, Zoroark/Magcargo is the best deck in the format. The combination of Zoroark-GX and Magcargo is even more powerful than it may seem on the surface. The ability to smooth out your draws in the early phases of the game and then transition to drawing whatever card you want every turn is just unreal. If the Zoroark/Magcargo deck is running properly (which, by its nature, it should be much more often than not), it will be able to find whatever answer it needs, dealing with whatever threat is presented, turn after turn. Which begs the question: What…
Pablo’s Look at Buzzwole, Zoroark/Control, Zoroark/Garbodor, and Rayquaza for Worlds “UPDATE: Since I wrote my article over the weekend, the ARG results came out and one deck in particular caught my eye: Buzzwole/Garbodor with all non-GX attackers. Since then, I’ve been trying out the deck and modifying it a little bit, and it has now become a consideration for my decks to play at Worlds for this upcoming weekend. Here’s the list that I’ve been using and wound up taking to a League Cup the weekend before Worlds, netting me a solid Top 4: The decks overall strategy is to abuse the fact that it plays ZERO Pokemon-GX, and thus…
It has an electrical organ on its chest. While generating electricity, it fills its surroundings with what sounds like the strumming of a bass guitar. (Toxtricity)
A Look Back at a Year of Junior Competition, NAIC Nuggets, and Poképarent Open Profile “The 2018 Championship Series saw only slight increases in attendance at the Regional level, but the number of Worlds qualifiers in North America doubled from 66 last year to 126 this year. The lowering of the invite threshold to 350 CP, guaranteed Top 4 points at League Cups, and four quarters of Cups put an invite within reach of many more players this year. For reference, though, 126 invites is still lower than 2015 (157) and 2016 (154), which had a very different series structure known for City, State, and National Championships. An increasing number of invites means more competitors…
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A Look at the Worlds Meta, Gardevoir, Gallade, and Decidueye “First, let’s discuss the premises that most of my thinking has stemmed from: Zoroark/Magcargo, Zoroark/Garbodor, Buzzwole/Lycanroc, and Rayquaza decks will make up the majority of the field at Worlds. These four decks are very powerful and can beat almost any deck, even if the specific matchup isn’t the best. Before and at NAIC, Malamar decks were among the top performing decks, but I suspect they will take a sharp dip in play at Worlds. This is for a couple reasons: first, they take a very weak matchup against all the Zoroark decks and even more so against the two listed…
A Detailed Look at Banette-GX/Garbodor for the Worlds Format “Banette-GX/Garbodor functions very similarly to Espeon-GX/Garbodor. One huge benefit is that Banette-GX only requires a single Energy to attack at all times. The deck doesn’t rely on drawing Double Colorless Energy in a timely fashion for Divide-GX or Psychic anymore. Shadow Chant hits for solid damage for a single Energy, which smoothes over the problems Espeon-GX had before of hitting for inconsequential damage with Psybeam. Overall, Banette-GX is a bigger threat on its own. The second major difference between Espeon-GX/Garbodor and Banette-GX/Garbodor is that the latter can run Rainbow Energy effectively. Energy Evolution required a Basic Psychic Energy, meaning…
A Look at Magnezone and Vikavolt as Answers to the 2018 World Championships Meta “We haven’t seen a truly mainstream Stage 2 deck since Gardy fell off the map after Europe’s International Championship. Arguably, my Top 4 there was on borrowed time for the deck, as the new Zoroark regime wasn’t too kind to things that evolved twice—a fairly surprising twist considering Zoroark itself evolves and on the surface doesn’t have any superpowers to shut down Stage 2s. But, as it turns out, the inherent consistency is undeniable—in fact, the last deck to do well with a Stage 2 was Zoroark, with a token Gardevoir presence. Equally surprising was that Gardevoir fell off despite…
A Look at Dusk Mane Necrozma/Magnezone for Worlds’ Standard “US Nationals was very informative in that it showed us where we were headed with the play styles of the upcoming top decks. Both the 1st and 2nd place decks were focused around disruption, and the 2nd place deck attempted to do almost nothing but disruption. The reason decks like this are able to succeed is because they take advantage of a metagame where decks give up their safety nets to opt for high-power aggression, a.k.a. Buzzwole-GX. I would not be surprised to see our entire meta shift towards control decks as more and more players realize this strength. We…
They came over from another region long ago and worked together with humans. Their green skin is resistant to water. (Copperajah)
A Primer on the Zoroark Variants of Celestial Storm, with Looks at Golisopod, Garbodor, and Magcargo “Garbodor BKP The list only plays one Garbodor, and a low tool count. This is because Garbotoxin does not always need to be online and the deck does not have room for a thicker count. It needs to dedicate space to techs for opposing Zoroark decks, and that means cuts elsewhere. With Rescue Stretcher and Puzzle of Time in the deck, you usually don’t have much trouble maintaining the ability lock when you want to. The biggest issue I have had with the singleton copy is prizing it, which can occasionally result in a rough game. Acerola and Max Potion…
Pablo’s Take on Zoroark/Magcargo for Celestial Storm Standard “The triangle that we had before, with Buzzwole-GX, Zoroark-GX and Malamar is still very much a thing. NAIC showed us, though, that Zoroark-GX was up to the task and a lot of the top players favored it over Buzzwole due to its inherent consistency and ability it gives you to make better decisions than your opponent. I feel like I’ve been saying this all season, but Zoroark-GX is a card that really favors skill, as the more cards you have access to during a turn, the more ‘optimal’ your decisions can be. Here’s an example of a typical/average Buzzwole or…
Considering the Realm of Worlds, On the “Right” Ease of Invitation, and Open Season On the Open “When considering the structure at Worlds, I want to first remind people of what we’ve had in the past. First off, it’s necessary to consider how players qualify for the big event. For most of the game’s modern era, and through 2012, a certain number of players were invited from each rating zone based on pre-announced cutoffs. For example, in 2012, the first year with Championship Points, the Top 40 from each division were invited from North America. A key change that came with 2012 was a shift from a modified Elo Rating system to the Championship Point system we know…
Stars of the Celestial Storm Thoughts and Ideas for Worlds “Scyther I think a good baby Pokemon is required for a Stage 1 swarm deck to be viable. Scyther certainly provides for this with its first attack, Twin Play. It searches for up to 2 Scyther and puts them onto the Bench, a useful attack when going Second. If anything, this somewhat fixes the 1st/2nd unfairness by providing a solid option as a first attack. I doubt that Scizor-GX decks will run Brigette because of this, and instead will opt for a more draw-heavy Supporter line. Ariados Ariados reminds me of Ninetales DRX but in a worse way. Obviously, it…
Meditations on a Just-Short Season, A Look at Yveltal, and Final Notes “Yveltal BREAK was one of the surprise stars in Columbus this year. I recall the card being incredibly hyped upon release, promising to make Yveltal-EX even more powerful in Expanded but the card never quite took off. The concept for an Yveltal BREAK deck was brought to my attention a few weeks before Columbus by Travis Nunlist and Singapore’s own Clifton Goh, but I would be lying if I said I ever took it totally seriously. The idea behind the deck seemed lackluster at best and there was no obvious synergy to explain for it. Yveltal is simply a powerful…
With their great intellect and flying skills, these Pokémon very successfully act as the Galar region’s airborne taxi service. (Corviknight)
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