30 results for: SUM–TEU
Fulop’s Fiery Unbroken Bonds Set Review, Exploring SUM–UNB w/ ReshiZard, GardEon, and Baby Blace, and Innovations at EUIC “via: Limitless TCG Fans of Tapu Koko rejoice! This deck is loaded with them! As a dedicated Spread deck, this list runs 4 copies of the Flying Flip promo (I now regret only buying 3 copies of the card under the assumption that was more than I’d ever need!), the Prism Star, and a copy of the GX. This is far from the first time we’ve seen a Tapu Koko-based Spread deck, and the core of this deck is certainly a gimmick we’ve seen before. Flying Flip and Shrine of Punishment spread damage early on, while Zapdos TEU and Larvitar…
EUIC Tournament Recap, Innovations, Our PikaRom List, and Vespiquen Honed for Hartford “EUIC was unique in that a new set wasn’t legal for the weekend of the tournament. This was the case for the first two Internationals of the season in São Paulo and Melbourne, where Lost Thunder and Team Up effectively debuted. I’m not sure which I prefer, but I was glad for the change of pace. A major tournament in a developed format (such as SUM–TEU) isn’t bad to have, as most decklists are established, so discussions center more around optimization rather than new ideas. Though, there were a fair amount of innovative decks and lists in the tournament that…
Last Word, Beast Box, and Ultra Necrozma/Malamar for EUIC (SUM–TEU) “Alex Krekeler and I have seen some success playing Beast Box because of how well it handles a select few decks. I believe this list to be as close to optimal as Beast Box is ever going to get. 4 Stakataka-GX Stakataka-GX is the reason this deck is so strong. With four on the Bench, all damage done to any of your Pokemon is reduced by 40 damage, which means Thunderous Assault hits for 40 base damage. Assembly-GX is also a very strong attack that is completely underrated. Doing 50+50 for each Prize card that you’ve taken does enough…
PikaRom and Hoopa/Umbreon for Berlin/the EUIC, and Unbroken Bonds Favs “Daytona Regionals took place this past weekend, and it was taken down by yet another Zoroark-GX/Seismitoad-EX Control deck. I was not surprised to hear that the DDG group was running this deck again, as the Lusamine ban made it so people dismissed this sort of deck and were less likely to test or tech against it, thus it thrived and succeeded. Now that it’s back on everyone’s radar, I would not be surprised to see Pokemon Ranger see an increase in play at Hartford. I myself did not attend Daytona, as I vowed I was done with Expanded, and I’ve…
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…
Little can stand up to its psycho cut. Unleashed from this Pokémon’s horn, the move will punch a hole right through a thick metal sheet. (Galarian Rapidash)
Highlighting Denver’s Unexpected Standouts: Bodybuilding/Zoroark Control, Draw/Celebi & Venusaur-GX, and Order Pad/PikaRom “Denver was a lot of fun and here’s a quick report on how my games went: Denver Regionals / 640 Masters / SUM–TEU Day 1 R1 — Alolan Muk/Garbodor/Psyduck — WW R2 — Zoroark-GX/Lycanroc-GX — WLL R3 — Buzzwole-GX/Zygarde-GX/Lycanroc-GX — WW R4 — Zoroark-GX/Lycanroc-GX — WLL R5 — Blacephalon-GX/Naganadel — WW R6 — Pikachu & Zekrom-GX/Zapdos — WW R7 — Blacephalon-GX/Naganadel — WW R8 — Regigigas/Hoopa — WW R9 — Blacephalon-GX/Naganadel — ID Day 2 R10 — Zapdos/Buzzwole/Nihilego — LL R11 — Pikachu & Zekrom-GX/Zapdos — WLW R12 — Buzzwole-GX/Lucario-GX — WW R13 — Blacephalon-GX/Naganadel — WW R14 — Pikachu…
The Green Machine (Celebi & Venusaur-GX), Blacephalon, and My Yellow Plays (Zapdos/Jolteon, Zapdos/Ultra Beasts, Lightning Box) for Denver “I really like this deck as a rogue play for Denver. It boasts quite a few good matchups that I want to beat, and that automatically put it on my radar. The deck struggles a little bit in the early game if you’re unable to find an Energy on the first turn. Usually, this isn’t a problem because we play 14 outs to Energy cards. 1 Wobbuffet LOT One of the matchups that this deck generally struggles with is Pikarom. This is because they can usually get a turn two Full Blitz if they dig for it. Wobbuffet plays a…
How to Approach a “Solved” Format and Kenny’s Play for Denver (Zoroark/Lycanroc/Lucario) “This puts players in a situation that I always find interesting: Do you continue to do what you’ve done for most of the format, just jamming what you feel is the best deck and hoping for the best? Do you try to find a rogue deck that has good match ups versus your expected metagame? Do you try out some spicy new tech in an established archetype that you hope will give you an edge? Does the answer to any of these questions change if you’re also attending the European International Championship later this month? My days of worrying about…
A Look at the Established Contenders (Lightning Toolbox, Zapdos/Ultra Beasts, Blacephalon, Zororoc, and Ultra Necrozma/Malamar) for Denver Regionals “This deck can play an aggressive Zapdos plan, but also gets to transition into Pikachu & Zekrom-GX. This deck can’t go for the Turn 1 Full Blitz reliably, but it gives up that line for a lot of additional versatility. Let’s look at all of the different attackers this deck supports! Zapdos Pikachu & Zekrom-GX Zeraora-GX Tapu Koko-GX Jolteon-GX Tapu Koko {*} (Hey, it can attack!) The lines are all thin, but it doesn’t really matter too much as you have so many options. One thing that is important to stress with this deck is that no, you won’t always…
A Complete Run-Down of All Six Major Lightning-Type Decks in Standard for Denver (Pure Zapdos, Turbo PikaRom, Lycanroc/Zapdos, Zapdos/Ultra Beasts, Jolteon/Zapdos, and PikaRom/Zapdos) “If there’s one thing that can be said about the metagame it’s that Team Up had a tremendous impact, arguably bringing two or three decks to the top tier immediately. It also meant the metagame has been a lot more focused and defined than before, as it all revolves around one type: Lightning. Since the set’s release, we’ve seen Lightning dominate in different forms, all of which seem to be extremely viable and potent in their own way: Pure Zapdos Zapdos/Ultra Beasts Jolteon-GX/Zapdos Lycanroc-GX/Zapdos Turbo Pikachu & Zekrom-GX Pikachu & Zekrom-GX/Zapdos If you’ve been following my journey on social media,…
Its thick and fluffy fur protects it from the cold and enables it to use hotter fire moves. (Raboot)
Profiling Zapdos/Lycanroc-GX in Standard and Recapping Archie’s Blastoise in Expanded “Coming into the tournament, I knew that Zoroark-GX/Garbodor would be a relatively safe play. I liked the list I had posted because it was consistent against everything, and should I dodge Pikachu & Zekrom-GX, the deck would work well. I liked having the extra Rescue Stretchers, Garbotoxin, etc. for my other matchups rather than the specific anti-Lightning cards that didn’t even make the Pikarom matchup favorable. Both versions of Zoroark-GX/Garbodor were my fallback, and it was good to see that some people had success with it. Alex Schemanske finished in Top 8 and Arlo Neel in Top 4. Justin Bokhari,…
Tiers 1 thru 3, Melmetal/Magnezone, Passimian/Zapdos, Spread, Zororoc Deconstructed, Walls, Lightning Box, and Traditional Zororoc “Before I do anything else, I need to define what the meta currently looks like based on recent League Cup results. Zapdos Variants Pikarom/Jirachi/Zapdos Zoroark/Lycanroc Walls Blacephalon Buzzwole Decks Spread Malamar Lost March Zygarde Lycanroc Everything Else Going forward, I will always be most worried about Pikarom, Zapdos, and Zororoc. These are the decks that everyone seems to be defaulting to right now simply because of how blatantly strong they are compared to everything else. Zoroark has consistency, and Zapdos and Pikarom have the ability to hit high numbers quite easily with Electropower. I haven’t seen many people talking about…
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…
A Top 16 Collinsville Tournament Report with PikaRom “Hey what’s up my guys! My name is Evan Gregory, and I play the Pokémon TCG competitively. I have played rather casually for about five years now, hitting a couple of Regionals here and there; however, this year, since worlds is in D.C., I have decided to shoot for my worlds invite. Starting with a poor Q1 with only 2 Challenge wins and a Cup top 16, I turned things around at Roanoke, where I placed top 32 with Blacephalon. After that I cranked out a Cup win, top 4, and top 8. Then taking a break through January, skipping…
On Day 2 + T64–128 Prizing, the Counter Decks of Collinsville (Vileplume, Zoroark/Garbodor), and the States of Both Formats “I managed to make it all the way to the Semi-Finals in Collinsville, which made me very happy. (The last time I made Top 8 at a big North American Regionals was Memphis in Dec 2017, so over a year had passed since I saw my name in bold letters in the standings after Swiss was done.) I made Top 8 as 8th seed this time, which made the achievement all the more exciting as I was “the underdog” going into top cut. I was taken down by Daniel Altavilla, ranked number 1 in the World, and I also lost…
With sly cunning, it tries to lure people into the woods. Some believe it to have the power to make crops grow. (Morgrem)
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