355 results for: card evaluation
My Season So Far, Sun & Moon Impact Cards, the State of Expanded, Top 10 Viable Decks, Notable Omissions, and New Contenders “Last you heard from me, I had done well at some League Challenges in the fall before failing to perform at Orlando Regionals. In that article, I highlighted some of my top plays for the Expanded Philadelphia Regionals, where I was fortunate enough to take second place with an Accelgor/Wobbuffet list only two cards off the one I presented. Since then, I have not attended any other Regional Championships, as my schedule has not allowed it. I have, however, performed well at some League Cups. I took Vespiquen/Zebstrika to a Top 8 where I was eliminated in a close set…
Athens Recap, the Top 8 and What It Means, Divisions Divided, and a Sun & Moon Set Review “Greninja. It’s a deck I’ve played a few times this season, most successfully to a heartbreaking conclusion in Fort Wayne. I didn’t have an article at hand, so it’s not been covered previously, but in San Jose, I also chose the Frogs — and promptly went 0-4. At that point I swore I’d never play the deck again, but, as they say, old habits die hard. I was drawn to it in Georgia because: I lacked a better option. My brother and mother, who usually end up playing something similar to myself and Alex Hill, played Vileplume and M Rayquaza…
Evolutions, How It Will Impact Standard, and Fairies for Fort Wayne “Evolutions released earlier this month, and I have to say that the artwork on the cards looks amazing. The set doesn’t introduce many stand-alone cards, but it does add specific cards such as Dragonite-EX and Mewtwo EVO to help support current decks. These cards will fit into the current powerhouses of the Standard format, either to make them more consistent or to swing certain matchups. Aside from these top cards, there are some cards that are too gimmicky, inconsistent, or unreliable to be great. My favorite thing about the set is that it promotes COUNTERPLAY. Counterplay is defined as: “a positive…
Karen’s Impact, How to Utilize Her, the Big Picture, Yveltal, Sableye/Garbodor, and Rainbow Road for Philadelphia “Back in August of 2013, I had a really “interesting” premonition of sorts: By now, we are all happily aware of what this unique Supporter — given to us arbitrarily in the middle of the season — is capable of. We first saw her leaked in May, begged for her to be released in Steam Siege for use in the most recent World Championships, and now the time has finally come: Philadelphia Regionals will be the first premier event where both Karen and NM/Vespi will be legal. “What’s going to happen?” I’ve heard many mixed reviews from notable players. Some…
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…
Known as a legendary hero, this Pokémon absorbs metal particles, transforming them into a weapon it uses to battle. (Zacian)
Five Methods for Evaluating New Cards and Uncovering Opportunities at State Championships “Compared to the other methods of analysis I’m going to address, understanding reprints isn’t as deep as the others. In part, that’s what makes it the perfect place to begin. The reprints are cards we’ve seen before — exact copies — but the metagame in which they exist may be slightly or wholly different. A pretty substantial disclaimer is needed here — the game of Pokémon has been around long enough, that sometimes old cards that were excellent simply aren’t good enough anymore. Hitmonchan and Electabuzz from Base Set were reprinted in Stormfront without fanfare, but when Energy Removal 2…
Breaking the Format and BREAKpoint “This list is fairly similar to what Alex Hill offered in his last article, but there’re also some significant departures. The Wobbuffet is primarily there for things like Vileplume AOR and Archeops DEX, but it’s excellent in the early game against Blastoise as well. In fact, it’s often viable to simply win a game against Blastoise with a T1 Wobbuffet and T2 Garbodor. That’s obviously not foolproof, nor always viable, but it’s an option that’s good to have on the table. I firmly believe mirror will be a somewhat big deal. I reflect that in the Pokemon Center Lady, as you’ll quickly find…
Analyzing BREAKpoint Cards Against Their Classical Counterparts “I’ve enjoyed the “multiple option” thing that has been going on with the Pokemon TCG lately. Cards like Giovanni’s Scheme, Parallel City, and now Puzzle of Time are giving players more than one way to play the card, and while this might seem like a fresh mechanic, it’s something that surfaced quite noticeably during the “LV.X” days. In fact, Puzzle of Time feels like a close cousin to Poke Drawer +, a card released in Stormfront that has nearly the same effect. For the record, there were two other cards in Stormfront that had the same “strength in numbers” effect…
Polar Decks for Winter Regionals and BREAKpoint Standouts “I covered this deck in my last article so I won’t go into too much detail here. I do feel this deck is still very strong and it fits perfectly into the type of decks I want to cover. It has near autowins against Vespiquen/Flareon, Manectric-EX decks, and Night March. Its really bad matchups include Blastoise, Seismitoad/Crobat, and Mega Rayquaza. Yveltal is an even to slightly unfavorable matchup. Vespiquen/Flareon was the most popular deck throughout City Championships and should remain quite popular at Winter Regionals, making Landy/Bats a solid play. I also expect Sableye/Gabodor to see much more play at…
A GroundBREAKing Mechanic, Game-Changers, Reprints, and Gauging Potential “Let’s go ahead and call a spade a spade here — the BREAK mechanic as exhibited by this set is unimpressive. There’s not a lot here that players are clamoring for, but as I explained earlier this isn’t a surprise. The card creators always seem to test the waters before ramping up a new mechanic. Remember that at one point playing an M Pokemon-EX was nearly unheard of, while now there are plenty of decks that utilize Mega Pokemon. Still, I think the BREAK cards here will find a niche place in future formats. Let’s look at why, starting with…
When ________ is content, the cream it secretes from its hands becomes sweeter and richer. (Alcremie)
Starting Grounds for Standard Cities, BREAKthrough Favorites, and Adapting Regionals Winners for Expanded Cities “As far as the Standard format goes, we don’t know a whole lot about what will be popular, as there has not been a major tournament with the format yet. However, I see Yveltal/Crobat being a serious contender. This is because of the introduction of the new Supporter card, Brigette. The ability to search for 3 Zubats makes setting up Crobats very consistent and much more reasonable. 4 Yveltal XY, 3 Yveltal-EX, 4-4-3 Crobat PHF We max out Baby Yveltal because of the lack of Dark Patch in the Standard format. We want to be able to set up Yveltal-EX…
Five Great Cards That Surprisingly Never Stood a Chance “This poor card. Craftsmanship is one heck of an Ability, the kind that people look at and immediately ask “So, how many championships has this thing won?” The answer, of course, is “None, my friend, because this card is about as bad as this Pokemon’s name …” But why? Is the attack too hefty a cost? Not really, considering that the archetypes at the time of Conkeldurr’s release had high attack costs (remember “CaKE,” which featured Cobalion NVI, Kyurem NVI, and Electrode Prime). In fact, Electrode Prime might very well be the perfect partner for Conkeldurr. First turn: attach a…
Four Ways to Tech Night March and Favorite Pokémon from Ancient Origins “Nationals was already nearly a month ago, but I’d still like to touch on it briefly. I went into the tournament with none other than … Night March! I know — I’m crazy, right? The Crobat hype skyrocketed after Canadian Nationals, and so I was actually pretty nervous about playing it. However, I was convinced that Night March was the best deck in the format with the right list and had the potential to beat almost everything, barring things like Baby Yveltal/Crobat. I had worked incredibly hard on the list, getting it close to perfect, and I was overall most…
Introducing the Nomadic Pokémon, Drifblim BW64 and Absol ROS “First, let’s define the term “nomad”: no·mad ˈnōˌmad/ noun noun: nomad; plural noun: nomads 1. A member of a people having no permanent abode, and who travel from place to place to find fresh pasture for their livestock. 2. A person who does not stay long in the same place; a wanderer. See? You get the idea. Decks that have solidified their place in the metagame have nothing to worry about. Yvetal-EX, M Rayquaza-EX ROS 76, or Primal Groudon-EX aren’t going anywhere. They stay where they are, and other Trainers/Pokemon come to them to create new decks. In a sense,…
More Musings on Seismitoad-EX, Loving Card Advantage, and Tamin’ Shaymin “My primary goal for Spring Regionals was to earn a (somewhat) significant amount of Points in order to get back into the Top 32 players in the US & Canada and earn a $1,000 Nationals stipend. I’m not sure if at this point I’ve actually gained anything, considering the amount of money I’ve already spent on traveling for tournaments — but Top 32 in North America is an impressive title in any case. Additionally, any amount of Points is helpful for my (long-shot) goal of getting Day Two status at Worlds, which could be achieved with a really good performance at US Nationals…
This Pokémon keeps its heat-sensitive head cool with ice. It fishes for its food, dangling its single hair into the sea to lure in prey. (Eiscue)
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