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A Partway Look at the 2018 North American Circuit by the Numbers “Personally, a big mystery in the recent growth of the game has been trying to analyze whether there are materially more players involved in the game or whether we’re simply seeing the same players attend more tournaments. This section will try to deal with that question, among other things. The following two paragraphs, and table following, summarize all of the findings I made in this respect. Afterwards, there’s further analysis and a bit more breakdown by Regional. At least 4990 unique Masters Division players have entered 11 TCG Regionals in North America this year—a total of 8125 event entries, for an…
Discussing the Expanded Format Banned List and Possible Revisions “Let me use this time to say that I’m not a game designer or developer, nor am I an employee of TPCi. All of the opinions expressed in this article are just that, opinions. I definitely spend more time than the average person thinking about this sort of stuff, but I am far from an expert or professional. I can’t speak to the exact motivations of any group or organization that I’m not a part of. I can only use my brain to produce the best thoughts I can, and put them into words for all of you. With that…
The Future of SixPrizes “Of course, while we’ll be staying true to SixPrizes’ roots, we have some exciting ideas in mind for the future. Some of them will be immediately apparent, and others are longer-term projects. We believe there’s a bright future, and plan to make the most of it. One of the biggest changes to SixPrizes will be in the content schedule. For years, we followed a clockwork formula of Tuesday/Thursday for Underground pieces, with other content interspersed as it happened. In more recent times, Monday and Wednesday pieces have become more frequent as we’ve adapted to the challenges of a changing tournament structure.…
An Inside Report on Cheating in the Pokémon TCG “So what is cheating exactly, and why do people do it? Cheating is to “act dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage, especially in a game …” —Oxford Dictionary Let’s be clear. Cheating is an ACT. You have to have dishonest intentions in order to cheat. You cannot cheat accidentally. If you drop a second Supporter without realizing that you already played Steven’s Advice this turn, you’ve done nothing wrong. We call this a gameplay error; AKA an accident. Errors like these are what the lenient rules documents aim to protect. Let’s switch that now. If you drop a second…
Tips on Card Storage and a New Season Mailbag “Most of you reading this article maintain some sort of collection. Whether it’s just a few Standard staples or a playset of everything since 2004, Pokémon players own some amount of cards and with that comes the need to organize them. The goal of this article is to explain why proper storage and organization is important, and give a few handy tips on how to best store your cards. Firstly, I think organization is incredibly important. I’m someone who tries to organize and structure all aspects of my life to save myself the most time and frustration possible. I find that, for…
It spits out thread imbued with a frigid sort of energy and uses it to tie its body to branches, disguising itself as an icicle while it sleeps. (Snom)
75 Flip-Filled First Turns with Shiftry NXD “Generally the deck’s first turn has two main phases. The first is the hunt for Forest of Giant Plants. Until it hits the board, the Shiftry deck is just a useless brick of cards. The key to success with Shiftry is going hard to find FoGP while conserving the devolution effects like Devolution Spray and Super Scoop Up to let you combo off later. Ultimately, (spoiler alert!) this is one of the biggest problems with the deck in the long run. If you draw FoGP in the first few cards of your deck you almost always are going to have…
Tips for Your 2015 US Nationals Fantasy Draft “In my opinion, the first round is always the most compelling. Everyone goes for who they perceive to be the best option; as such, players picked in this round are necessarily the hottest players around. Assuming that your draft is utilizing the snake method discussed above, it should not be a surprise that the first picks are always going to look the same. Dylan Bryan and Ryan Sabelhaus are without a doubt the safest picks around, but for those without the luxury of picking high in the order, here are some valuable options that may go overlooked in the initial picks:…
Thoughts and Theories on the Junior Meta “The most frequently cited statement about the Junior meta is that it “lags” the Masters meta by a few months. I would like to start by adding some nuance to this statement to reflect the Junior mindset. This is the key difference between Juniors and Masters and reflects the more sophisticated perspective of the Masters meta. The way the Junior mind works is something like this: “I just lost to this deck that seemed awesome. I should play that deck! That deck just won the tournament … I should play that deck!” Whereas the Masters mind works more like this:…
New Year’s Resolutions, Pokémon TCG Edition “The number one enemy at tournaments, at least for me, is definitely the dreaded tilt. You know the feeling — your opponent top-decks a Juniper off of an N to 1, you flip 8/8 tails on Crushing Hammers and Super Scoop Ups, you get down-paired twice in a row, killing your resistance and hopes of making cut. Whatever the issue is, we’ve all had those matches that just didn’t go our way. Whether it’s making misplays, rude opponents, or unlucky hands that causes you to go on tilt, no matter what, this attitude can easily ruin your day. The next…
A Quick Guide to the 2014-2015 Season Rotation “Cards Reprinted Shaymin-EX Kyurem-EX LTR Mewtwo-EX Double Colorless Energy Fringe Cards Lost Amoonguss NXD Gardevoir NXD Zebstrika NXD Regigigas-EX Exp. Share Heavy Ball Pokémon Center Big Cards Lost Level Ball Skyarrow Bridge Prism Energy Level Ball This is a big loss to Evolution decks like Empoleon and Flygon/Dusknoir as it was the easiest way to search for those little Pokémon. This hurts decks like Virizion/Genesect (playing a Stage 1 like Raichu) too, and we don’t really have a replacement. There are plenty of other Balls (Ultra Ball, Great Ball, etc.), but they all have big downsides. Essentially, the Pokémon search…
Its conspicuous lips lure prey in as it lies in wait in the mud. When prey gets close, ________ clamps its jagged steel fins down on them. (Galarian Stunfisk)
Quantifying the Most Skilled Format of All Time “1. United States only. I began recording participants from all countries, but quickly realized the data would not be very telling considering how few invites certain countries receive (meaning their sample size is probably too small to be statistically significant), plus certain countries have received notably more or less invites over the duration of the World Championships. Brazil, for example, had 13 attendees in 2013, but none in 2011. That’s a big jump! Also considering the differences in invite and tournament structures between nations, I think it makes sense to hone in on the country that has had the most continuity…
What We Learned from US Nationals and Applying It to the LCQ (and Worlds) “The first question item that I am going to address is what exactly did well at US Nationals. Here are the decks that placed in the top 32 in the Masters Division: 8 Pyroar variants 6 Team Plasma (2 TDK, 4 Lugia) 6 Yveltal variants (4 Yveltal/Garbodor, 1 Yveltal/Darkrai/Hammers, 1 Yveltal/Kangaskhan) 4 Virizion/Genesect 4 Flygon/Dusknoir (3 Accelgor, 1 Miltank) 3 Aromatisse variants (2 Plasma, 1 Big Basics) 1 Landorus/Mewtwo/Raichu/Garbodor So what can we infer from these results? I have put together a list of points that I think sum up what we can take away from US Nats: 1. Rain Dance is…
The SabelCenter Top 8, a Look at Nationals Fantasy Drafts, and Last-Minute Deck Choices “As I’ve stated in my previous article, one of the main problems that I find with how information is communicated over the internet would be the handling of praise for creativity and consistency. The only results that seem to be noticed would be the finishes that have a “1st place” trophy next to them. This section is made to highlight my top 8 performances or accomplishments of late that most people may not have heard about. With numerous Nationals results coming in from around the world, there have been many great achievements that may have gone unnoticed in the Pokemon community.…
A Couple of Decks from Singapore, Two from Norway, and a Duo of My Own “Norway David Jensen’s Top 8 Weavile Deck Richard Andersen’s Top 8 Empoleon Deck Singapore Jit Min’s 1st Place Charizard Deck Jeremy Leong’s 2nd Flygon Deck My Two Favorites Yveltal/Garbodor Virizion/Genesect/Raichu Conclusion Although this National Championship wasn’t streamed like Singapore, there was still a lot of talk about it. After the tournament, one of the players who made top 8 at the event posted their deck list in the “Virbank City” Facebook group. David Jensen’s Top 8 Weavile Deck This is the deck that surprised a lot of players, and gave others who spent time testing it a hard time. The deck had come…
Crunching the Inter-Nationals Numbers and a Personal Favorite Pick “I think the old-school Plasma deck TDK is the one to go for and here are my reasons: 1. Speed. TDK is fast and can often steal quick wins. This is very nice in a tournament that is likely to be 9 rounds, then 5 more rounds in top 32, then top 8, where every round is 50 minutes best-of-three. Winning a few games very quickly will be very nice for your mental health at this tournament! Not only that, but a lot of decks cannot lose game 1 and win two quick games, this one can. Check out how…
A clay slab with cursed engravings took possession of a ______. The slab is said to be absorbing the ______’s dark power. (Galarian Yamask)
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