355 results for: card evaluation
Out in T64 of the Players Cup, Thoughts on the Event, and a Darkness Ablaze Set Review “For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you already know that I’m no longer in the event, and it is somewhat ambiguous if I’m even allowed to publish my list yet, but it’s 2 cards off from the list I published a while back. I went into the event knowing that no matter what deck I played my run would be determined by the matchups I would hit. So, me being me, I decided that taking a very mediocre PikaRom matchup was somehow a good idea. For four whole rounds, my rather unintelligent view was valid. LucaMetal/Zacian pretty…
Sword & Shield Set Rundown, ADP/Zacian V the BDIF, and Concept Lists for Hammertime and Fire Box “I’m going to run down the set list and give some brief thoughts on the strongest cards. This section is not meant to be all-inclusive, but rather an inspiration for your own deck-building adventures. I think Rillaboom is severely underrated amongst most players. On top of having the traditional Rare Candy method of getting put into play, Rillaboom can also take advantage of Rowlet & Alolan Exeggutor-GX. While it doesn’t have a plethora of strong attackers, Rillaboom can make use of Venusaur & Snivy-GX, Dhelmise V, Rowlet & Alolan Exeggutor-GX, Celebi & Venusaur-GX, and Pheromosa & Buzzwole-GX. Each of these…
Dallas Recap w/ Shock Lock, Sword & Shield Top 5 (for Standard), and Electrocharger PikaRom for OCIC “Heading to Dallas, I had been joking around with a few friends about playing Shock Lock for the event. As the week progressed, my friends kept getting more and more hyped about the idea. We decided on somewhat of a pact that if all six of us played it we would, but if even one person backed out we would get to play whatever we wanted. I had mentally prepared myself to play Vespiquen for the umpteenth time in my life because this Shock Lock expedition required me to gather 24 copies of Tropical Beach…in English. I began my quest…
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 can race around like a unicycle, even on rough, rocky terrain. Burning coal sustains it. (Rolycoly)
UPR–CEC Meta Developments, Updating Pidgeotto Control, and Asides on Checkmate and Oranguru UPR “At the beginning, I posed lots of questions. Now, my job is to answer them. I’ll specifically get into Pidgeotto Control later on in the article, as that’s the main topic I’ll be discussing. For now, I’ll do a brief overview of the decks I expect to gain (or change) a lot from the new set release. PikaRom will flop due to the absolute lack of card support it received in Cosmic Eclipse. The problem isn’t even Mega Lopunny & Jigglypuff-GX; the strong decks are too difficult. To start, ADP should be able to wipe the floor with PikaRom because…
UPR-on ReshiZard, Predicted Trends for UPR-on, the Transition Period (Goodbye, Cards…), and a Succinct NAIC Recap “In terms of the actual tournament, Stéphane Ivanoff pulled off what seems like an impossible feat, by winning back-to-back in 2018 and 2019. He also did it with two different Zoroark-GX decks, the latest one including a wide array of options such as Dewgong UNB, Persian-GX, and Naganadel-GX. Triple Acceleration Energy was the real star of the show, however, as it is what allowed all of these cards to work so well and have so much synergy between them. I myself didn’t have such a stellar experience, as I was eliminated from Day 2 early on with a 3-3 record.…
An Unbroken Bonds Review, Blastoise/Alolan Ninetales, and All-Basics ReshiZard “I’m going to start things off with what may be a controversial statement: I don’t believe this card is going to be good enough. While at face it resembles powerful cards that have led many players to great success, I believe that it has some weaknesses that are going to prove too difficult to overcome. Firstly, I believe Fire Weakness is going to be a huge liability in a format full of Reshiram & Charizard-GX. While cards with suboptimal Weaknesses have been successful in the past, I’m not too interested in putting myself at an immediate disadvantage in the early…
Fulop’s Fiery Unbroken Bonds Set Review, Exploring SUM–UNB w/ ReshiZard, GardEon, and Baby Blace, and Innovations at EUIC “via: Limitless TCG Fans of Tapu Koko rejoice! This deck is loaded with them! As a dedicated Spread deck, this list runs 4 copies of the Flying Flip promo (I now regret only buying 3 copies of the card under the assumption that was more than I’d ever need!), the Prism Star, and a copy of the GX. This is far from the first time we’ve seen a Tapu Koko-based Spread deck, and the core of this deck is certainly a gimmick we’ve seen before. Flying Flip and Shrine of Punishment spread damage early on, while Zapdos TEU and Larvitar…
PikaRom and Hoopa/Umbreon for Berlin/the EUIC, and Unbroken Bonds Favs “Daytona Regionals took place this past weekend, and it was taken down by yet another Zoroark-GX/Seismitoad-EX Control deck. I was not surprised to hear that the DDG group was running this deck again, as the Lusamine ban made it so people dismissed this sort of deck and were less likely to test or tech against it, thus it thrived and succeeded. Now that it’s back on everyone’s radar, I would not be surprised to see Pokemon Ranger see an increase in play at Hartford. I myself did not attend Daytona, as I vowed I was done with Expanded, and I’ve…
It sneaks into people’s homes, stealing things and feasting on the negative energy of the frustrated occupants. (Impidimp)
Oceania IC Results Discussion, Breakout Cards, and the Four Major Decks Heading into Collinsville “Let’s look at the results from the Masters Division of the event! Here are the Day 2 final standings (via Limitless, PokéStats, RK9 Labs): 1. Byron Isaiah Williams — Zapdos Jirachi 2. Stéphane Ivanoff — Zoroark Lycanroc Lucario 3. Kaiwen Cabbabe — Pikachu & Zekrom 4. Jose Marrero — Pikachu & Zekrom 5. Bert Wolters — Zapdos Jirachi 6. Lucas Henrique de Araujo Pereira — Pikachu & Zekrom 7. Henry Brand — Zoroark Lycanroc 8. Daniel Altavilla — Zapdos Jirachi 9. Christian Hasbani — Malamar Ultra Necrozma 10. Robin Schulz — Zapdos Jirachi 11. Azul Garcia Griego — Zapdos Jirachi 12. Rahul…
Team Up Notables, the Oceania Meta, Lost March, Psychic Malamar, and Impressions of the New Standard “There are a lot of cards in Team Up, and quite a few of them are pretty good. Pikachu & Zekrom-GX: This is probably the card/deck that is seeing the most hype, and from my experience it has certainly lived up to that hype. The card is incredibly strong, combining high HP, insane Energy acceleration, and a broken GX attack. Add in the Lightning-type support we’ve received in the last two sets, and you get a truly powerful archetype. Celebi & Venusaur-GX: This is what I feel is probably the most interesting TAG TEAM to talk about, because it is played…
The Return of Fulop’s Korner, Malamar Goes Far, and a Special Poll (RED or BLUE?) “I finished in the Top 64 of Roanoke Regionals with a pretty unique take on an Ultra Necrozma/Malamar deck that has since spawned a very unusual direction for me to take the archetype. For reference, this is the list I piloted at the event: This deck has a lot of options available to it, but the main thing that stood out from playing the deck is just how strong Ultra Necrozma’s Sky-Scorching Light-GX attack was. Traditionally, Ultra Necrozma builds of Malamar focused on just one-shotting opposing Pokemon. That isn’t exactly a bad plan, as Ultra Necrozma is extremely efficient…
Pikachu & Zekrom-GX, Rayquaza/Vikavolt, and Celebi & Venusaur-GX (for Standard) “Having said that, I know current Standard (SUM–LOT) is on its last legs, so I won’t bore you with that. Instead, I’ve also been thinking and theorizing a lot about Team Up. I’ve paid special attention to Japanese results and their Team Up format, and there’s one easy conclusion to arrive to: Pikachu & Zekrom-GX is the next big thing. Lightning-type Pokemon have so much support with Thunder Mountain {*}, Electropower, Volkner, and strong Pokemon like Zeraora-GX, Tapu Koko-GX, and Zapdos TEU. All this synergy, along with some pretty broken attacks, will finally make Pikachu an undisputed force to be…
The Past (Dallas w/ ZoroToad), The Future (SUM–TEU Standard), and a Team Up Top 10 “This is the Seismitoad-EX/Zoroark-GX list that my entire group ended up playing for the event! Caleb ended up with a 2nd-place finish, and the group had great success overall, so I would say it was a very successful tournament! 1 Oranguru UPR: This is a card that was mentioned when removing stuff, but ended up being kept around, and I am super glad that is the case! Despite not playing against any mill decks or decks that featured Garbodor GRI, this Oranguru pulled its weight. It was crucial in my victory against Mega Gardevoir, and it made some big plays in…
It stashes berries in its tail—so many berries that they fall out constantly. But this Pokémon is a bit slow-witted, so it doesn’t notice the loss. (Greedent)