9 results for: Shock Lock
Dethroning ADP/Z, Turbo ADP/Z, Sleep Mill (Best Mill), and, Yep!, Shock Lock “Traditionally, decks are prevented from becoming too dominant via the Weakness mechanic. As Gabriel pointed out, this doesn’t apply to ADP/Zacian, as there simply aren’t any good Fairy Pokemon to counter ADP, and Zacian V can have its Fire Weakness removed by Metal Frying Pan. (In case you have forgotten, Fairy Pokemon are being phased out of the TCG, so there will never be any more Fairies printed to stand up to ADP-GX.) So, if we want to counter ADP/Zacian, we are stuck dissecting it for exploitable weaknesses. I’ve compiled a short list here of quirks that you can look…
The State of Expanded, Shock Lock in Collinsville, and What Almost Was (ADP/Alolan Raticate) “Needless to say, Expanded is not in a good place right now. I’ll try not to spend too much time complaining (my opinions won’t change what Pokemon will do about it), but there are some things I’d like to bring up. First, I don’t know why Trevenant & Dusknoir-GX was ever printed. This card is inherently degenerate—you will never put TrevNoir in your deck as an attacker intending to play a fair, back-and-forth game. (This applies to Standard, as well, though it isn’t oppressive in that format.) If Pokemon bans Milotic FLF, TrevNoir will inevitably rear its ugly head again…
My Final ADP/Zacian V List for OCIC, Expanded in a Nutshell, and Shock Lock w/ SSH “If OCIC was tomorrow, I’d play this. It’s widely accepted that ADP/Zacian V is the best deck, and there has been little evidence to debunk this. The deck works, and being able to OHKO almost everything and take an additional Prize when doing so is powerful—who knew? -1 Phione CEC +1 Oranguru UPR -1 Tapu Fini UNM +1 Jirachi TEU -1 Metal Energy +1 Water Energy These changes are pretty self-explanatory. Phione and Tapu Fini, though good cards, are very situational and perhaps not worth running. My main reason for including Phione was as a counter to Galarian Obstagoon SSH…
Octo Doll and Classic Shock Lock (i.e., Decks That Require Tropical Beach) for Dallas “Credit where credit is due, this first list originates from a deck sent to me by Rudy Wade. I removed the Energy denial and stall cards in favor of a Durant-style sit-and-mill deck. This list heavily invests in the synergy between Rescue Scarf and your Lillie’s Poke Dolls/Robo Substitutes (henceforth just “Dolls”), giving you a near-endless supply of 0-Prize walls. Simply sit behind your Dolls and cast a milling Supporter every turn, occasionally using Junk Hunt to recover high-value cards like Pal Pad and Eco Arm that will continue the pressure and soft-lock. Normally, relying on reactive Pokemon Tools like…
Introducing “Budget” Shock Lock, an Approachable Shock Lock with No Tropical Beach “In my previous Expanded article, I predicted a particular new card to spell serious trouble for Shock Lock—Great Catcher. Since you were basically stuck with Tapu Lele-GX on the Bench until the very end of the game (where Pickup on Pal Pad for 2 AZs allowed you to go positive on resources), Great Catcher would permanently threaten to push Stoutland to the Bench. Then, Guzma can be played, which breaks the Paralysis lock for that turn and targets down your Pikachu, meaning they can attack yet again on the next turn. While it’s unclear at the moment how common Great…
As soon as it’s born, it burrows into an apple. Not only does the apple serve as its food source, but the flavor of the fruit determines its evolution. (Applin)
A Comprehensive Guide to Shock Lock “For a bit of background about myself, I started playing Pokemon around Burning Shadows, and have played in a handful of Regionals/ICs, but had not made Day 2 until this most recent weekend in Portland. Despite being relatively new to competitive Pokemon, I’m no stranger to playing card games at a high level, having played competitive Magic for the past 12 years, including a Pro Tour appearance (their equivalent of an invite-only IC). Furthermore, Expanded has always been my format of choice, basically since I started playing. The depth of the card pool and the number of different decks you…
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…
Daytona Top 8 Recap, Archie’s Blastoise and Shock Lock for Hartford, and a Bonus ZapBeasts List for the EUIC “For the most part, the metagame in Daytona was as expected. There were a ton of Archie’s Blastoise, Pikarom, and ZoroGarb decks in the field. This centralization of the metagame tends to happen when we have had so many major tournaments in the same format. Day 2 of Daytona is where things got interesting. We saw that many of the decks that did well in the field were not in the Big Three. Instead, many old favorites came out to make a big showing: Rahul Reddy’s 10th place Vespiquen/Flareon deck showed that even with the changes in the game over…
After it’s eaten its fill, its movements become extremely sluggish. That’s when Cramorant swallows it up. (Arrokuda)
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