26 results for: SUM–UNB
Thoughts on My Winning ReshiZard List, What to Change, and a Meta Counter (Zoroark/Slowking) for Madison “Overall I was super happy with my list and my choice, as, outside of winning, the reliability of 4 Jirachi TEU and 4 Kiawe + 4 Welder was unparalleled. My deck performed the same thing over and over super reliably, especially in a Best-of-3 setting. This is 100% supported by the fact that I went 6-1 (13-4 in individual games) in the mirror match. I could tell people were overteching and using inconsistent ReshiZard decks, which made me look forward to facing off against what I felt were super favorable “mirror” matches. The deck was also incredibly fast at either…
On the Sets This Year, Countering ReshiZard, Kyurem/Quagsire, and Omastar/TAG TEAMs for Madison Regionals “The tyrant emerging from Unbroken Bonds is Reshiram & Charizard-GX, and the results of the first weekend of events show this deck is the real deal. We saw different versions take down both Santa Clara and São Paulo, with SixPrizes’s own Alex Schemanske and Pablo Meza nabbing 2nd and 1st respectively at these events. Interestingly enough, all three Reshizard decks that found themselves in the finals had significant differences in their builds. Kian Amini’s was the most unique with 4 copies of Volcanion UNB, Green’s Exploration, and Custom Catcher. My great pal Kenny Wisdom did a detailed breakdown of Kian’s…
A Santa Clara Tournament Report with the 1st Place ReshiZard, What I Learned From My Losses, the PikaRom I Didn’t Play, and Oh Yeah Madison “I’ll be the first to admit that I was ill-prepared for the inaugural tournament with Unbroken Bonds and hoping for some last-minute miracle of a deck to fall into my lap as I boarded my flight to Santa Clara. I was dead set on playing PikaRom or a Mill list similar to the one that Peter Kica wrote about in his article last week. I had found so much success with PikaRom in the past and the deck was testing well online, but at the final hour its flaws began to unravel themselves. Before I go into what went wrong…
Santa Clara Regionals Wrap-Up, Featuring: A Zoroark-Less Top 8, an Analysis of Kian’s 1st-Place ReshiZard, and Other Important Takeaways “To start things off, let’s take a look at the Top 8 after the Swiss rounds (along with final placement in parentheses): Alex Schemanske—Reshizard (2nd) Michael Catron—Zapdos/Fighting (3rd) Kian Amini—Reshizard (1st) Jimmy Pendarvis—Shedinja Control (5th) Mike Morton—Zapdos/Ultra Beasts (4th) Preston Ellis—Lucario & Melmetal-GX/Vileplume (6th) Azul Garcia Griego—Shedinja Control (7th) Marcus Dodson—Pikarom (8th) There’s a ton to break down here, so let’s get right to it. First, I would like to focus on what wasn’t present in the Top 8… Zero Zoroark-GX decks in the Top 8 is quite the rare occurrence. We don’t have a full metagame breakdown (yet), but…
Midrange Zoroark-GX and the Sinister Vileplume Stall Reformulated for Santa Clara “When beginning my testing for SUM–UNB, I overlooked Zoroark-GX as many others have. With its decline in success due mostly to Lightning decks (Zapdos and Pikarom variants) swarming the fields, Zoroark has lost respect in the eyes of many as the “top dog” it once was. With its Standard legality coming to an end at North America Internationals in June, I thought I should give Zoroark-GX a chance to shine in this new format. Throughout its history, Zoroark-GX has been an incredibly versatile card and its ability to be utilized by many different styles of decks has been very apparent.…
This Pokémon will look into your eyes and read the contents of your heart. If it finds evil there, it promptly hides away. (Galarian Ponyta)
The “Win-or-Lose” and “Get-Some-Points” Plays for Santa Clara Regionals “I haven’t been able to put as many games as I would have liked into the new format because of my little jaunt to Panama City, but from what I’ve been testing, this seems to be the best play for those of us who want to go all the way. Blacephalon-GX is in a very interesting place right now. It is one of the few decks that can stand up to Pikabox, Zapdos, and now Reshizard. Unbroken Bonds has brought us a whole bunch of different Fire support and Blacephalon-GX can utilize some of it. Even though Welder does allow…
ReshiZard & Friends, Turbo PikaRom, QuagNag, and Both Blacephalon on the Spotlight “The new set Unbroken Bonds has just arrived, and with that the metagame has already changed a lot. The main reason for so much change is the arrival of Welder, Fire Crystal, and the great sensation of the moment, Reshiram & Charizard-GX. With São Paulo Regionals coming in a few days, I decided not to waste time and I’ve already been testing—for a few weeks now—the new cards from Unbroken Bonds, in order to try to understand how the current metagame will be and what decks may appear in the tournament. The SUM–UNB format further embodies the end of the…
An Unbroken Bonds Review, Blastoise/Alolan Ninetales, and All-Basics ReshiZard “I’m going to start things off with what may be a controversial statement: I don’t believe this card is going to be good enough. While at face it resembles powerful cards that have led many players to great success, I believe that it has some weaknesses that are going to prove too difficult to overcome. Firstly, I believe Fire Weakness is going to be a huge liability in a format full of Reshiram & Charizard-GX. While cards with suboptimal Weaknesses have been successful in the past, I’m not too interested in putting myself at an immediate disadvantage in the early…
On Unbroken Bonds, Fire, and Two Early ReshiZard Decklists (One Straightforward/T1 Kiawe, One Flexible/Support) “Fire decks are as good as they’re hyped up to be, kind of like Pikachu & Zekrom-GX which did live up to the hype, culminating in it winning European Internationals two weeks ago. I didn’t do so hot at the tournament, as I lost two win-and-in’s to Day 2 with a list that was four or five cards different from Gustavo Wada’s winning list. The immense amount of support available for Fire-type Pokemon is what makes Reshiram & Charizard-GX decks so good. They can also be built in a variety of ways, ranging from hyper offensive to more teched out…
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…
Sudden climate change wiped out this ancient kind of _______. This Pokémon absorbs others’ life-force through its branches. (Galarian Corsola)
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…
This hungry Pokémon swallows Arrokuda whole. Occasionally, it makes a mistake and tries to swallow a Pokémon other than its preferred prey. (Cramorant)