28 results for: Garbodor
Thoughts on the Now Completed POG 2020 and Five Decklists to Kickstart TEU–DAA “I loved this deck so much before rotation. Sure, I completely butchered my original list in order to play Pokemon Catcher in POG, but the deck was really solid when built correctly. Aside from Escape Board, this deck didn’t really lose anything to rotation. In order to combat the loss of Escape Board, I decided to cut Jirachi and add more consistency cards. This list is frighteningly close to what I should have played in the UPR–DAA POG format. Obviously Jirachi is gone, but that might not be the end of the world. This deck is going to want to…
The Quiet Days and Second Wind of My Pokémon Career, Including the Most Unbalanced Decks I’ve Played, from 2013–2014 to Now “Ah, where were we? After 2013 Worlds, BLW, EPO, NVI, and DRV were rotated. Since the early Black & White sets started off slow, and because power creep really ramped up started at NXD, very few important cards were lost to this rotation. In addition, several of the powerful cards had already been reprinted: Terrakion got a secret rare in BCR; EPO Item powerhouses Pokemon Catcher and Max Potion got theirs in DEX and PLF; and the staple supporters Professor Juniper and N were spared too. The main exceptions were Eelektrik NVI and Crushing Hammer EPO. Virizion-EX/Genesect-EX PLB was the…
Top 64 @ Limitless Q2 w/ ADPZ, the Hidden Benefits of Livestreaming Yourself, Upgrading to ADPZZ, and Toxtricity VMAX for LQ3 “After playing with Lapras VMAX in the previous tournament, I decided that this time I would like to play with a Tier 1 deck. My choice was ADPZ, as it is the most consistent deck in the format and I think it is a very easy deck to play. As I said before, my idea this time was to play all of the tournament while streaming, that way I could show other players my performance in the competition in addition to challenging myself to be a more focused player. In the end, this new experience was very positive for me and…
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…
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…
It stands in grasslands, watching the sun’s descent from zenith to horizon. This Pokémon has a talent for delivering dynamic kicks. (Stonjourner)
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…
ZoroGarb for Portland, Jon’s Idea Dump (UPR–CEC Edition), and Charizard & Braixen Hand Lock for LAIC “-1 Cobalion-GX -1 Mr. Mime PLF +1 Garbodor GRI +1 Brigette For the most part, I thought Michael’s list was perfect. It was well suited for the expected meta. However, to the surprise of some, Archie’s Blastoise, arguably the most hyped deck going into the event, didn’t have a single spot in Day 2. This wasn’t even due to the deck doing poorly or having a poor place in the meta, it was mainly because not many people played it. The changes I’ve made to the list are under the assumption that the same will hold true in Portland. Cobalion…
A Shock Lock Disclaimer, ZoroGarb (Sky Field & Parallel City), ZoroToad, ToadGarb, and Misc. Other Expanded Thoughts on/for Richmond Regionals “Most people first associate my name with my beloved Stoutland deck, so I wanted to include a bit for the people who may have clicked just for that. Shock Lock is a very poor play in current Expanded. Part of what made the deck so consistent and powerful is that it could play no Pokémon Tool removal and simply concede to Garbodor decks. Now, any deck that plays Stealthy Hood makes themselves immune to Evoshock. Previously, Shock Lock took an auto-loss to Trevenant PHF (sans clunky Lysandre techs) because your only means of using Evoshock infinitely is with Lillipup BLW’s…
Meta Shifts to Hartford, How to Counter Shock Lock, Plus Zoroark/Vespiquen and Buzzwole/Garbodor/Jirachi for this Weekend “But before anything else, I want to talk about how the Daytona meta is likely going to impact what we see in Hartford. Over half of Top 8 was made up of Control decks Zoroark/Garbodor and Archie’s Blastoise fell off the map in Day 2 Seismitoad is back and still a major threat Shock Lock made two consecutive Top 8 placements by the same player Pikarom is easily the strongest deck in the game But what does this all mean? Hot Take #1: We should see more people playing Shock Lock. How does the game deal with this though? There…
ZoroGarb 2.0 and PikaTickets for Daytona “I personally believe that Justin Kulas and I came incredibly close to achieving the perfect list for Greensboro. Here is said list: Going forward, I’d say that this list is a perfectly acceptable choice to play in Daytona this weekend. It’s one of the most consistent lists that still includes tech cards for nearly every matchup; however, I believe there are cards that are better in the list now that we’ve seen Drampa/Garbodor win an event and Pikarom make a comeback. There are a few key changes that I believe allow the deck to handle almost any matchup we’re going…
After many battles, it evolved dangerous claws that come together to form daggers when extended. (Perrserker)
Alolan Exeggutor, Yveltal BREAK, and Lucario-GX/Omastar on Display for Daytona “The above list was piloted to a 28th place finish at the Toronto Regional Championships by my good pal Franklin Percic. When I first read that Alolan Exeggutor months back, I immediately thought it had potential in Expanded, and was beyond hyped to see Frank find success with the deck. The goal of the deck is to get three of your Exeggcute PLF into the discard pile with one Alolan Exeggutor in play and a Double Dragon Energy attached. Pulling the Exeggcutes into your hand with their Propagation Abilities allows you to then discard all three for a whopping 180…
Zoroark/Garbodor, Sceptile/Decidueye, and White Kyurem/Articuno for Denver “I first got inspiration for looking at the Zoroark/Garbodor/Alolan Muk combo when Pablo wrote about Alex Cole’s T32 list from Collinsville which I liked. The combo of the new Alolan Muk with Trashalanche is obvious and seems insane to me for a lot of different reasons. I was also inspired after watching Alex Garcia crush Day 1 with a more Dark-focused version of Zoroark utilizing Weavile, Nanu, and Black Market {*} alongside Zoroark-GX, which lead to the monstrosity you see above. The idea here is to utilize Zoroark-GX for early game pressure through Riotous Beating while setting up your smaller…
The Greensboro Meta, Popular Decks, We’re Seeing Shifts, and Detailed Analysis of the Winner, Garbodor/Drampa-GX/Sigilyph-GX “The Day 1 metagame breakdowns have been posted on the RK9 Labs Facebook page for each event, and it is super interesting to see the shift in decks from one weekend to the next. These are the top five played decks from Toronto and Greensboro, per their data: Toronto Pikachu & Zekrom-GX (43) Archie’s Blastoise (38) Lucario-GX (30) Zoroark-GX/Garbodor (29) Hitmonchan (22) Greensboro Archie’s Blastoise (57) Zoroark-GX/Garbodor (49) Pikachu & Zekrom-GX (47) Hitmonchan (28) Trevenant (23) Both Regionals had similar attendance (358 and 389 Masters, respectively), so it’s interesting to see how the meta changed from “unknown” in Toronto, with no…
Recapping Toronto’s Headlines, the Two Paths, and on Trevenant, Zoroark/Garbodor, and Night March for Greensboro “Players had been clamoring for a Lusamine ban for quite some time, and about a month ago TPCi listened, giving it and Delinquent the boot from the format. While it’s probably not a good use of anyone’s time to envision how the results of Toronto would’ve looked had those two cards been legal, I think we can all agree we likely wouldn’t have seen such a diverse metagame under the old ban list. Even more importantly, the community has expressed almost unanimous positivity regarding the state of Expanded, following Toronto, which I never would’ve predicted three months ago. When was…
On Trevenant’s Torontonian Reign, the Future for Trees, the Case for Counterbox, and My Play (ZoroGarb) for Greensboro “As we know, the Toronto Top 8 was made up of these decks: 4 Trevenant BREAK 1 Night March 1 Archie’s Blastoise 1 Counterbox 1 Zoroark-GX/Garbodor It’s not hard to see that Trevenant BREAK dominated the event, despite its lack of a 1st or 2nd place trophy at the end of the weekend. At the end of Day 1, there were two Trevenant BREAK decks at the top of standings; both included a Pyroar FLF line! This was an unexpected tech that swung over the Pikarom matchup. Once the Pyroar was set up, it was already game over. Going first,…
The powerful muscles in its tail generate its electricity. Compared to its lower body, its upper half is entirely too small. (Dracozolt)