16 results for: BLW–CEC
T4 @ Dallas w/ ZoroGarb, Other Good Expanded Decks, Idea Dump (Sword & Shield Edition), and an Early UPR–SSH Tier List “Leading up to Dallas, my group and I had tested several decks, all of which felt relatively mediocre in comparison to Turbo Dark, which left us with the question “Why aren’t we just playing Dark?” To tell it short, only one of us ended up on Turbo Dark. I can’t speak for the others, but the reason I didn’t end up playing it—despite it being a sheer powerhouse of a deck—was because I didn’t feel as if I had enough options to outplay my opponent when I was playing the deck. The deck felt too reliant on if you could…
My T8 Regirock/Sableye from Dallas, Ideas for Adapting It to BLW–SSH (for Collinsville), and a Sword & Shield Set Review “Michael Catron sent me a list that he had just thought of on Thursday morning, and after talking about it some, I was very intrigued by it and decided that I would put all the time I had before Dallas into testing the deck and optimizing the list. I only made a few changes to the list he sent me because I was unable to even begin testing the deck until Friday at around noon, but the changes I did make likely made the difference between a very good finish and an alright one. In my testing, we were consistently…
Dallas Recap w/ Ultra Necrozma, Takeaways for BLW–SSH Expanded, Sword & Shield Top 5 Cards, and an Aside on Goal Setting “Going into Dallas, I was fairly set on playing Ultra Necrozma. I felt good about the deck, its matchups, and how it could efficiently deal with the decks I expected to see. In the week leading up to Dallas, I continued experimenting with my list, ultimately adding in some quirks that I ended up playing in my final list below: When I told people this weekend I was playing Ultra Necrozma, they would often respond with “Garbodor or Octillery?” I often found myself responding by saying “Both?” to a plethora of confused faces. So first, the Wobbuffet and Garbodor BKP…
Closing the Book on RoxieChomp in Standard, and GardEon for Dallas “I’ll be brief here, because I know UPR–CEC Standard is waning and unimportant. I had a string of League Cups and Bochum Regionals where I played RoxieChomp, so I’d like to post my list here one final time for anyone going to tournaments before Sword and Shield sets come out. Not that anyone cares now, but I think TinaChomp will still be an incredibly strong deck with the rule changes and the new cards. Time will tell what new additions should be made, and which version (Roxie or non-Roxie) will prevail. Take this list to League Cups! It has good…
Octo Doll and Classic Shock Lock (i.e., Decks That Require Tropical Beach) for Dallas “Credit where credit is due, this first list originates from a deck sent to me by Rudy Wade. I removed the Energy denial and stall cards in favor of a Durant-style sit-and-mill deck. This list heavily invests in the synergy between Rescue Scarf and your Lillie’s Poke Dolls/Robo Substitutes (henceforth just “Dolls”), giving you a near-endless supply of 0-Prize walls. Simply sit behind your Dolls and cast a milling Supporter every turn, occasionally using Junk Hunt to recover high-value cards like Pal Pad and Eco Arm that will continue the pressure and soft-lock. Normally, relying on reactive Pokemon Tools like…
When it gets down on all fours as if to beg for forgiveness, it’s trying to lure opponents in so that it can stab them with its spear-like hair. (Morgrem)
Marathon Watching, Expanded in Five Points, Lucario-GX, and Obligatory Bees “Going into Dallas Regionals, we’re playing the only major Expanded event of the BLW–CEC block, and what makes it even more peculiar is that this will be the first major since the recent ban list has taken effect. For the first time since City Championships were removed from the tournament circuit in favor of League Cups, we saw Marathons this holiday season. Places like Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and more hosted consecutive days of League Cups, mostly keeping to a single format. As fellow writer Alex Schemanske talked about in his article, we saw rapidly evolving metagames…
Jose’s Mew Box and ADP Dark for Dallas “This deck has plenty of attacking options, which is why it’s considered one of the strongest plays going into Dallas. Depending on what you are up against your strategy changes. Every Pokemon in the deck has merit and it’s ultimately up to you to find your win condition and pinpoint your strategy as soon as you know what you are facing up against. I like that Jon Eng’s list includes this package because, with it, you can take multiple Prizes in a single turn against low-HP Pokemon, namely Zorua and Trubbish, when combined with Distortion Door. There are a few…
What I Learned from the Iowa Marathon, a Pre-Dallas Tier List, and Turbo Dark (My Top Play for Dallas) “At the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020, we saw “marathons” of League Cups occur across the country. Some of these were Standard-only, some were Expanded-only, and some were a mix of both formats. I chose to attend the one in Iowa because it was within driving distance and fully Expanded. I did alright, netting 125 “fake” (Stipend) CP and a whopping 10 Invite CP. During that week, I witnessed something that I haven’t seen since the end of the City Championship era with their own marathon weeks: A local meta that shifted and developed based on the…
Turbo ReshiRom, ReshiRom/Naganadel, and Ultra Consistency Ultra Necrozma for Dallas “The idea for utilizing Reshiram & Zekrom-GX originally came from a late night of Expanded testing, where I ran into a Rayquaza-EX/Eelektrik deck, straight out of a little less than a decade ago. When I started building the deck myself, to remind myself of the old days, I remembered that there was a significantly stronger version of Rayquaza-EX, and built the Naganadel list farther below. While I’ll cover that deck in a moment, I wanted to have a little more pure aggression for my list, to truly scrap with the Turbo Greninja & Zoroark-GX decks. So, after looking through different…
The Latest on ZoroGarb, ADP Dark, and UltraGarb for Dallas “With that in mind, I have found myself putting in the most work with ZoroGarb, mostly because it feels familiar and very powerful. It combines a wide variety of things that are important in Expanded, such are Item abuse, Ability abuse, and overextension on the Bench usage, whilst having the amazing Trade Ability. Here is the latest draft of the list that I’ve been practicing with the most: The list is of course heavily based on Ian Robb’s winning list from Portland. However, it does feature new inclusions that are both great new cards but also personal preference choices. The…
Living with a savage, seafaring people has toughened this Pokémon’s body so much that parts of it have turned to iron. (Galarian Meowth)
Introducing “Budget” Shock Lock, an Approachable Shock Lock with No Tropical Beach “In my previous Expanded article, I predicted a particular new card to spell serious trouble for Shock Lock—Great Catcher. Since you were basically stuck with Tapu Lele-GX on the Bench until the very end of the game (where Pickup on Pal Pad for 2 AZs allowed you to go positive on resources), Great Catcher would permanently threaten to push Stoutland to the Bench. Then, Guzma can be played, which breaks the Paralysis lock for that turn and targets down your Pikachu, meaning they can attack yet again on the next turn. While it’s unclear at the moment how common Great…
ReshiRom-GX/Ho-Oh-EX, aka the New and Improved Expanded Rayquaza, for Dallas “We now have more of a use for Double Dragon Energy (DDE), which makes this deck do wonders. With the release of Cosmic Eclipse, DDE gives new decks a chance to thrive in the Expanded format. ReshiRom-GX/Ho-Oh-EX has more speed and power than any other Turbo deck in my opinion. The deck can get a turn 1 270–280 easier than you may think thanks to Ho-Oh-EX and other Energy acceleration options. I believe that is the reason why this deck is the most powerful of all the Turbo decks. Fabled Flarebolts can easily be fueled by just 1 Double Dragon Energy,…
Exploring Expanded Garbodor Variants: Zoroark-GX, Ultra Necrozma, and Rogue Giratina-EX/Welder “Zoroark-GX/Garbodor has been a staple of the Expanded format for as long as I can remember. Lists have remained incredibly similar over time due to the unchanging core of the deck: Brigette and Colress. These two Supporters define the engine and contribute to the deck’s low variability between games. Garbotoxin always counters an entire format, Riotous Beating is a good attack, and Trade glues the components together. As you’ll see, the list is quite similar to all those before it. To start my testing, I took Ian Robb’s list from Portland and made a few changes to account for the…
UPR–CEC Standard Meta Review, the Rise of Malamar, and Expanded Mewtwo Box “The first event of UPR–CEC Standard was the LAIC. There we saw some new ideas flourish, but the big trend I noticed among top players was that most of them stuck to what they knew was good, confident that they’d get at least a decent finish. This was shown by Robin Schulz winning with Ability Zard. Another example is both myself and our own Rahul Reddy playing similar Mewtwo decks comparable to the old version that had proven to be good. This event highlighted: what Mewtwo could do with the new tools, how Ability Zard was still strong despite falling…
Steven’s PikaRom in San Diego, Treasures & Traps (Post-Bans Edition), and Two Concepts for Dallas “I was feeling fairly confused heading into San Diego Regionals, following Daytona the week before. My top pick had been an Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX list not too dissimilar from the one Diego would take to a Top 4 finish later on, followed by a Malamar list which featured Ultra Necrozma-GX and Gengar & Mimikyu-GX, inspired by that of Daniel Altivilla. However, I wasn’t really feeling satisfied with either pick; I knew both were good, but ever since I had been working with Lost March, I wanted to find something else that felt like it had surprise factor. Speaking…
With the hair wrapped around its body helping to enhance its muscles, this Pokémon can overwhelm even Machamp. (Grimmsnarl)
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