15 results for: BLW–SSH
Salazzle Mill (for Toronto) and Morpeko VMAX 2.0 (for Charlotte), or What Would Have Been “I’ve probably never played more games with a single deck than I have with my Salazzle list. Even before OCIC, I had the deck built and was testing it. Unfortunately, I decided against playing it in favor of a “safe” deck in PikaRom. Local players have seen me play this at a few League Challenges now, and can attest to how broken it seems. I was going to bring it to Toronto, where I’m pretty sure I would have seen success. There are a lot of weird counts in this list, but this was ultimately the best way to build…
On TrevNoir in Dallas, Other Expanded Contenders, ADsPinner, and the Post-Malmö Standard Tier List “Granted, I expected the deck to be played more than in Dallas of course, which is why I had a specific tech for mirror in my list: Wobbuffet PHF. The deck ended up being the overall winner, but unfortunately not in my own hands. I did make Day 2, barely, after a 4-0 start, but I performed very poorly in Day 2 due to a combination of poor luck and poor play on my part due to me feeling terrible with the flu and a nonstop cough. 67th place meant reaching Day 2 meant nothing, as I could’ve just played…
Top 8 @ Collinsville w/ Sceptile/Vileplume, Vileplume Variants Moving Forward, and Looking Toward Charlotte “After making Top 8 at Dallas Regionals with the list that my friend Aaron Friedman made, I took a bit of a break from the game until Collinsville. With my invite secured and a big Regional done, I enjoyed my time relaxing and grinding through schoolwork. I played some games of the format before Collinsville, but not a ton. As such, I spent a lot of time Friday night scrambling to figure out what to play. I was between three options: Doll Stall, Trevenant & Dusknoir-GX/Milotic FLF, and, of course, Sceptrow. I didn’t feel as prepared for the event as…
Morpeko VMAX/Dusknoir in Collinsville, Flaws with Our List, Updates, Matchups, and Briefly on Standard “As a note, whenever I say “we” in this portion, it generally refers to some combination of Alex Krekeler, Wes Hollenberg, Patrick Littleson, and me. Leading up to the event, I was frantically testing Expanded, and everything felt terrible. I didn’t want to play TrevNoir because I knew the mirror match would be common, and I didn’t want to play Zacian because of how linear it is which made it easy to counter. This led me to try out rogue decks that had no business being good. Ironically, I built Cramorant V/Mew FCO on Monday, but eventually tabled the deck…
The State of Expanded, Shock Lock in Collinsville, and What Almost Was (ADP/Alolan Raticate) “Needless to say, Expanded is not in a good place right now. I’ll try not to spend too much time complaining (my opinions won’t change what Pokemon will do about it), but there are some things I’d like to bring up. First, I don’t know why Trevenant & Dusknoir-GX was ever printed. This card is inherently degenerate—you will never put TrevNoir in your deck as an attacker intending to play a fair, back-and-forth game. (This applies to Standard, as well, though it isn’t oppressive in that format.) If Pokemon bans Milotic FLF, TrevNoir will inevitably rear its ugly head again…
They came over from another region long ago and worked together with humans. Their green skin is resistant to water. (Copperajah)
Mew/Cramorant V @ Collinsville, Matchups, Moving it Forward, and Expanded Takeaways for Charlotte “Going into this weekend, I was fairly set on a list a few cards off from the Zacian V list that I had posted last week. The only real changes I had made were swapping a Blissey LOT line out for the Copperajah SSH and Galarian Rapidash SSH line I was working on in my article, while trying out a few different slots, like a 2nd Dhelmise GRI and a Professor Kukui, as well as a 12th Energy and a 4th Max Elixir. Each time I laid out my list, it felt like it made sense to me. Then, my…
Chaotic Zacian V and Treasures & Traps (Collinsville Edition, ft. RoxieChomp, Turbo Dark, Ultra Necrozma, and More) “I know that fellow author Jonathan Croxton wrote about this very same deck yesterday, but I still think it’s important to cover my iteration of the list because it feels different enough and uses a few different strategies in certain matchups. While Jonathan went for a more aggressive approach, using cards like Sky Field and no Tapu Lele-GX, I’ve been finding success with a more methodical version of the deck. Here’s what I have sleeved up right now: I’ve seen a ton of players on the Expanded PTCG Online ladder try to put an Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX into…
The Post-OCIC Meta, Two for Collinsville (Straight Zacian V, Zacian V/Bronzong), and Understanding Expanded as an RPS Format “The main story of OCIC was the utter dominance of ADP/Zacian V. Nearly half of Day 2 competitors played it, and it took up seven of the Top 16 slots. The rest of the decks were essentially tried-and-true favorites updated with Quick Ball and Professor’s Research: Mew3, Malamar, PikaRom, Ability ReshiZard, and Baby Blacephalon. One deck that surprised me by living up to its hype was Zacian V Mill. Including the player that got DQ’d for an incorrect decklist, three of the four that made Day 2 got Top 16, and two made Top 8. I think if the tournament…
My Final ADP/Zacian V List for OCIC, Expanded in a Nutshell, and Shock Lock w/ SSH “If OCIC was tomorrow, I’d play this. It’s widely accepted that ADP/Zacian V is the best deck, and there has been little evidence to debunk this. The deck works, and being able to OHKO almost everything and take an additional Prize when doing so is powerful—who knew? -1 Phione CEC +1 Oranguru UPR -1 Tapu Fini UNM +1 Jirachi TEU -1 Metal Energy +1 Water Energy These changes are pretty self-explanatory. Phione and Tapu Fini, though good cards, are very situational and perhaps not worth running. My main reason for including Phione was as a counter to Galarian Obstagoon SSH…
Preliminary Expanded Decklists ×4 and Mew3/Fire Box + Green’s Blowns for Standard “The biggest things to happen in Expanded with the release of SSH are easily the emergence of Zacian as an archetype and the turn 1 no Supporter rule. Both of these things have had a decent impact on the format, and made some of the old archetypes much better and some much worse. In my initial breakdown of SSH I mentioned some of the cards that got better, so check that out for that info. I believe that I may have initially overvalued EggLet in this format though. I initially thought the card, and the deck, would be incredibly good,…
It’s famous for its high level of intelligence, and the large size of its brain is proof that it also possesses immense psychic power. (Orbeetle)
Wobbuffet/Sableye V for Collinsville and in the Concept Cave with Torkoal V, Stonjourner VMAX, and Zacian V “The following deck is the list I’ve put the most time into for Collinsville Regionals, which is just a little over two weeks away! For those of you that don’t know, Collinsville Regionals in 2018 was my first Day 2 finish, where I played Zoroark-GX/Lycanroc-GX, so the tournament holds a special place in my heart. Enough nostalgia, though; here’s the list: There’s a ton to unpack here, and I’ll get into the specific counts in a moment, but the essential concept is to slow your opponents down by going second and starting Wobbuffet PHF. From there, you’ll quickly find that…
T8 @ Dallas w/ TrevNoir, Japanese Resources, Anticipated UPR–SSH Archetypes, and Snorlax VMAX for Expanded “My initial testing showed a struggle with Turbo Dark, as it was so easy for them to power up and take OHKOs due to Weakness. I discarded the deck, making a video to showcase it here: One week before the event though, my friend Alex Garcia encouraged us to give it another go as on paper it seemed strong, and we added 2 Weakness Policy to help deal with Turbo Dark. As we played the matchup more, we started to realize how favorable the match actually was, so we decided to high-roll with the deck and hope for the best.…
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…
It shows no mercy to any who desecrate fields and mountains. It will fly around on its icy wings, causing a blizzard to chase offenders away. (Frosmoth)
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