42 results for: Malamar
Malamar for the POG (UPR–DAA) and Charizard VMAX Post-Rotation (TEU–DAA) “That’s right everyone. Malamar isn’t gone just yet. I feel obligated to at least try and make this deck viable for the last event it will ever be legal for. Michael Catron posted a list on his Twitter last week, which is going to be pretty similar to mine. This is something that’s mostly been sitting in the back of my head for a month or so, but I did at least put it into PTCGO at some point. Aside from the sentimental value that it has for me, Malamar is actually not that terrible of a deck in this…
The Rebel Clash Up-and-Comers, Including Falinks V, Malamar VMAX, and Lost March Rebooted “To start off, we have Falinks V, a Fighting-typed brute reminiscent of Passimian SUM decks from a couple of formats ago. The deck utilizes Falinks V’s Iron Defense Formation Ability to decrease damage done to your Falinks’ by 20 damage. This pairs incredibly well with your main attacker, another Falinks! This single-Prize version does 30 damage for each of your Benched Falinks. With all 4 Vs and a 5th Falinks on board, you’re attacking for 150 with no other buffs and having damage reduced by 80, effectively giving Falinks at least 170 HP. Even better, the deck sets up incredibly…
How I’m Dealing w/ Being Stuck Inside, Myriad Online Tournaments, and Introducing Project Old Decks “As many of you know, there are online tournaments and circuits popping up left and right. The abrupt cancelation of the season seems to have finally gotten the community to make the push toward holding online tournaments. There isn’t the same level of prestige as in-person tournaments, but for the situation this is an incredible collective effort. I’m hoping that this gives TPCi the push they need to improve the online client because of how many players are finally using it. What kinds of online tournaments are there? Limitless Online Series UPR–SSH Pods BLW–SSH Pods PokéStats Old Formats Tournaments I’ll…
What I Like About the Limitless Online Series, Mew3/Malamar (My Q1 Deck), and Malamar VMAX to Counter Dragapult, the Likely New BDIF “I think what I love the most about the Limitless Online Series is their format, with Best-of-1, 25-minute rounds, akin to what Japan runs for their own big tournaments. Best-of-1 adds variance, but in order to compensate for that, the original plan was to play 20 total rounds, and I expect that to stand. I love it because it makes strategies such as Cinccino Mill or Pidgeotto Control less viable. These, in my personal opinion, take away fun from the game as they essentially are solitaire decks where your opponent doesn’t get to do much during their turn, removing all…
Zacian/ADP and Mew3/Malamar, My Early BDIFs of Sword & Shield Standard “Now that I’ve had a more genuine chance to give a wide array of decks a try, I’m completely convinced that Zacian V is by far the best deck in the format. It can be paired up with Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX to become a huge offensive threat, or with Melmetal & Lucario-GX in order to become a tankier deck and try to win the battle of resources. Both variants have impressed me so far, and I especially love having the Energy denial aspect in the deck, whilst also having an easier time OHKOing things. Testing has led me…
The lessons of many harsh battles have taught it how to accurately judge an opponent’s strength. (Corvisquire)
My Top 5 Plays for São Paulo Regionals, the Last Major Event of UPR–CEC “Malamar/Giratina/GXs GardEon PikaRom RoxieChomp Mewtwo Box Interestingly, four of the five decks that I like most for São Paulo are focused on TAG TEAMs. (And even Malamar/Giratina plays TAG TEAMs!) These decks just need a few cards in their opening hands to start developing their strategy, which makes them consistent and avoid silly losses due to bad starting hands or early pressure from the opponent. Also, I believe these decks are versatile and can adapt to many different game situations. My favorite Malamar/Giratina variant at the moment is a version similar to the one used by Team DDG at San…
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…
On the Daytona Beach Meta, Double-Victory Weekend w/ Malamar @ Cups, Catron’s Psychic Malamar, and Misc. Thoughts for San Diego “I’d be interested to dig deeper into the decklists and see what percentage of the Mew3 decks ended up playing Wobbuffet LOT in order to try and fully counter Ability ReshiZard, as it was the third most popular deck overall. Of the three most popular decks, only Mew3 managed to make Top 8. This tournament was basically the upside-down LAIC, as we saw ADP and GardEon heavily decline in popularity, yet boast a much better conversion rate for Day 2 and also face off in the finals. Florges Doll Stall ended up being the more successful Mill deck yet again,…
Malamar Three Ways (Standard, Ultra Necrozma, Unit Energy) and AbilityZard ×2 (Pidgey Teched, Max Consistency) for Daytona Beach “Malamar seems to be in a decent place in the metagame right now. With a majority of the top decks being TAG TEAM-based, a single-Prized deck should be able to take advantage of that. The flip side of the argument, and what I mostly hear as the death of Malamar, is Mallow and Lana. While healing 120 does give Malamar problems, I don’t think that alone is enough to push it out of the metagame. I was able to snag a 1st place at a League Challenge and a Top 4 at a League Cup this past week with Malamar…
Cosmic Eclipse Highlights and Malamar for LAIC “Cosmic Eclipse is one of the most impactful sets that we’ve seen in a long time. In a format that lacks a lot of consistency cards, and has issues with single-Prize decks gaining any real traction beyond Malamar, Cosmic Eclipse adds so many game-changing cards. For instance, we had no way to recover Pokemon from the discard pile that isn’t a Supporter card. Now, we have an Item that does it (Lana’s Fishing Rod). There’s a lot of cards in this set, and quite a few of them are going to see play to some extent in both formats. Okay.…
What appears to be an iron helmet is actually hardened hair. This Pokémon lives for the thrill of battle. (Perrserker)
The Metagame Review for LAIC 2019, Part 1 “GardEon has gotten even better with the arrival of Chaotic Swell to help prevent Fairy Charms from being disabled by Lysandre Labs. In addition, the deck now has all the consistency of Tag Call, Cynthia & Caitlin, Guzma & Hala, and Mallow & Lana. I see some lists cutting Xerneas GX from the deck for the new Tool Island Challenge Amulet. In theory, both Xerneas GX and Gardevoir & Sylveon GX with Island Challenge Amulet surrender only 2 Prizes when Knocked Out, forcing the opponent to Knock Out 3 Pokémon to draw all of their Prizes. In practice, Island Challenge…
All About Malamar (List, Matchups, Techs) for Knoxville, Cups, and Challenges “The biggest surprise coming out of Atlantic City was the failure of ReshiZard—in any form—to make Top 8 (or even Top 16). Almost nobody could have seen this coming because of how inherently powerful the deck is. I suspect that the lack of a Top 8 spot can be attributed to the fact that very few notable players actually played the deck, with most of the “top” players opting to play PikaRom and Mew Box instead. Both of these decks have legitimate shots at beating ReshiZard, so that decision made sense. ReshiZard’s numbers will probably start to decline, but I…
Shifts in Standard, Malamar: the Squid-surgence, Sequencing, and a Checkmate Update “Though I’m at a distance from the competitive scene, it’s still quite easy to keep track of what’s doing well because of social media posts. Almost all tournaments have their Top 8 posted, and most sponsored players post their list after each tournament. It’s been interesting to see the meta shift due to changes in popular opinion. For one, AbilityZard has become AbilityNoZard, with most lists playing 0 Reshiram & Charizard-GX! On another note, Malamar has become one of the popular decks of the format. Most notable players have always spurned Malamar, instead choosing to play more consistent decks. Magically,…
Lists, Pros, and Cons for 10 Top Decks this Weekend (São Paulo, AC, and Cologne) “Ability ReshiZard Mew Box Blacephalon-GX/Naganadel LOT PikaRom GardEon Pidgeotto Control Malamar/Spell Tag QuagNag Green’s ReshiZard Dark Box As crazy as it may sound, TAG TEAMs actually don’t have high enough HP to survive the monster attacks of the current metagame. Before Worlds 2019, it was common to see Super Scoop Up, Mixed Herbs, and Great Potion in decks to heal damage, but nowadays these cards have lost a lot of their relevance. Another insane aspect of the deck is that we have non-GX Pokémon that can easily Knock Out TAG TEAMs on the same turn they are benched. Each one…
Zigging Through the GX-Dominated Metagame with QuagNag/Keldeo-GX and Malamar/Spell Tags “As said before, the duo of Quagsire and Naganadel has returned to the metagame to accelerate Keldeo-GX, which is a strong Pokémon in a GX-stuffed metagame. Keldeo-GX’s Pure Heart Ability is so strong that there is a Quad Keldeo deck whose main strategy is to keep Keldeo-GX in the Active position while using Supporters like Steven’s Resolve and Lusamine to get all of the cards you need to prevent your opponent from damaging you and eventually force them to lose by deck-out. Quad Keldeo was used at Worlds 2019 by Dylan Gunn who finished in 26th place, but I believe…
This Pokémon is said to have been born when a lonely spirit possessed a cold, leftover cup of tea. (Sinistea)
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