19 results for: throwback
The Quiet Days and Second Wind of My Pokémon Career, Including the Most Unbalanced Decks I’ve Played, from 2013–2014 to Now “Ah, where were we? After 2013 Worlds, BLW, EPO, NVI, and DRV were rotated. Since the early Black & White sets started off slow, and because power creep really ramped up started at NXD, very few important cards were lost to this rotation. In addition, several of the powerful cards had already been reprinted: Terrakion got a secret rare in BCR; EPO Item powerhouses Pokemon Catcher and Max Potion got theirs in DEX and PLF; and the staple supporters Professor Juniper and N were spared too. The main exceptions were Eelektrik NVI and Crushing Hammer EPO. Virizion-EX/Genesect-EX PLB was the…
A Deep Look into HS–BLW, the Wild-Ride Anything-Goes 2011 Nationals and Worlds Format “If you asked top players what their favorite format to play at the time was, you would get mixed answer. The format was considered highly luck-based, filled with donks and some consistency issues. The randomness and uncertainty of the format caused me to sit out US Nationals that year to make sure I secured my Worlds invite. However, it’s also a very unexplored format which leaves a lot of room for creativity and rogue decks to shine. Many of the reasons I hated playing the Worlds 2011 format at the time are the same reasons I enjoy playing the format…
A Look Back at the Radical and Still Not Yet Fully Explored 2004 EX–HL Format “As I’m writing this, I’m slowly realizing that this was 12 years ago and how far I’ve come in those years, both inside the game and outside of it. At the time I was only 14 years old and knew almost nothing about the game. I had played when the game first came out, but the fad had faded and it had been years since I had really played the game. However, my younger brother who was eight years younger than me would still play. One day he asked me if I wanted to go to a Pokemon tournament with…
A Study in Gimmickry in the Pokémon TCG “For starters, I think it important to define what a gimmick deck is and what it is not. Interestingly enough, the definition for “gimmick” embodies the idea sufficiently: Gimmick: a method or trick that is used to get people’s attention or to sell something.
1 a : a mechanical device for secretly and dishonestly controlling gambling apparatus
1 b : an ingenious or novel mechanical device : gadget
2 a : an important feature that is not immediately apparent : catch
2 b : an ingenious and usually new scheme or angle
2 c : a…
Regigigas Lock of the 2011 MD-CL Format “To properly play this deck you will need to understand the card counts and ideologies behind them. This deck is far from autopilot and requires a lot of thought. If the deck looks confusing to you at first, don’t worry! After reading this article it will make more sense. Basically, from turn 1 and onward you look for any opportunity to lock down your opponent. A few points to keep in mind while reading: You will often be behind until the last turn of the game. You may find yourself relying on a few key cards to seal games. Virtually every matchup is…
Its hairs work like muscle fibers. When its hairs unfurl, they latch on to opponents, ensnaring them as tentacles would. (Grimmsnarl)
An Introduction to 2007 R-Gon (Flygon HP with Stuff) “4 Holon’s Castform Castform was the glue that held this deck together. As I mentioned before, not only did it provide a good attack for setting up, but it also gave you a way to power up your attackers without having to play an array of basic Energy types. This card was so powerful that many decks, such as Lucario DP variants, can attribute part of their success merely to being capable of knocking out an opposing Castform before its power could be fully utilized. Also, as an aside, note that Holon’s Castform is not a card that can be…
Seniors Top 8 US Nationals 2011 Lookback with Yanmega/Kingdra “It was July 2011 and I had just arrived in Indianapolis with my Samurott BLW 32/Donphan Prime deck. I was excited for Nationals, because I had tested all summer long, and since it was my last year as a Senior I was ready to go out with a boom. The night before the tourney, I bumped into my good buddy Michael Diaz in our hotel. He kindly invited me into his hotel room to test, and I, of course, accepted his invitation, ready to test my Samurott deck out on players other than my cousin and father. Upon arrival to Mike’s…
Breaking the 2007-2008 Format “It’s really easy to say that you want to play your own “rogue” deck at huge tournament and achieve success, but it’s very difficult to do in practice. Players try to pick out the strongest cards when every new set comes out, test them, and the cards that perform well in a tournament setting become part of the metagame. Sometimes the format has tons of variety, but in 2007-2008 the format was dominated by two decks. The best first step I’ve found in coming up with a “rogue” deck in a narrow format is to look for an overlapping weakness…
Summarizing Arithmetic, The Little Rogue That Could “So, What is Arithmetic? Breaking Down the Deck A Reflection Conclusion In all honesty, I don’t know where Jimmy Ballard comes up with the names for the decks he expertly crafts. I faced an entire day of slight embarrassment at the 2007 US National Championship when I played another Ballard deck oddly named “The Sausage.” No matter though – I would gladly play a deck named “Droopy Glowworm MAX Propellor” if it gave me the best chance to win a tournament. Also, “Infra Turbo Pigcart Racer” by deadmau5 just popped up on my playlist. So, you know, titles for things.…
Recapping the 2007-2008 Season “After the rotation in 2007, the format was wiped of many of its best decks and provided with its second legal Diamond & Pearl series set, Mysterious Treasures. While Lucario DP saw some play at both Nationals and Worlds before the new season began, Blissey MT was a card that stood out at this time because of its extremely high HP and unlimited damage cap. I personally had a lot of success running little besides a 4-4 Blissey line in my deck throughout Autumn Battle Roads. Blissey was a tank. Not long after Blissey had seemingly taken over, the format was tossed on its head…
It’s usually peaceful, but the vandalism of mines enrages it. Offenders will be incinerated with flames that reach 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit. (Coalossal)
A Look Back at MD-CL (2011) Format Gyarados “On paper, the entire strategy can be boiled down very easily. Place three Magikarp into the discard pile, use the fourth to evolve into Gyarados, and use Tail Revenge for zero Energy doing 90 damage to your opponent’s Active Pokémon. Golly! Everything else in the deck was intended to set up the Tail Revenge as soon as possible, and (in a perfect world) make sure that the attack was used six times in a row to take six Prizes. In fact, this is one of the very few decks in Pokémon history that only wanted to use one damaging attack…
Looking Back at LBS (Lugia ex, Blastoise ex, Steelix ex) “LBS as a deck is pretty simple. You use Blastoise ex’s Poke-Power Energy Rain to power up a variety of attackers who use two or less non-Water Energy in their attack costs with the Holon Pokemon. In this particular deck, the two primary attackers are Lugia ex and Steelix ex. Lugia ex’s Elemental Blast smacked for a whopping 200 damage, taking out even the toughest ex in the format in one shot. Steelix ex was meant for board control, with Mudslide. Mudslide’s 100 damage to even a Benched Pokemon let you pick off Prizes and up-and-coming Pokemon alike. This was…
A Comprehensive History of Shutdown Strategies “Wizards Era Sneasel/Slowking EX Era Medicham Mewtric Mynx Diamond & Pearl Era Gardevoir/Gallade Glisctomb Sablelock Black & White Era The Truth Chandelure/Vileplume Gothitelle/Accelgor XY Era Flygon/Accelgor Conclusion Format: BS-N3 As someone who joined Pokémon Organized Play and thus the competitive scene after Nintendo took over, I don’t trust myself to give enough information about this time period and know enough about each deck to write at length about them. That being said, there’s no way I could leave out the most infamous lock deck that we’ve seen in the game: Sneasel/Slowking. This deck was so dominant that both Sneasel and Slowking became banned…
An In-Depth Look at the 2010 DP-UL Format, Part I “First, the Nationals and Worlds format of 2010 was one of the best formats this game has ever seen. There were a wide variety of archetypes and many of the matchups were very close and highly skill based. The format is also one of the least expensive “good” formats to build from and more and more players seem to be getting interested in 2010 particularly. Of course, prices fluctuate and increase the more and more players start buying the cards, but when I was building these decks I didn’t pay over $8 for any single card and a majority of…
A Brief US Nationals Recap, the Player vs. Judge Perspective, and a Little Something to Count On Come Worlds or Next Season “Blast from the Past: “Scrambled Eggs” A Brief US Nationals Recap The Player vs. Judge Perspective On Card Counts Zero Copies of a Card One Copy of a Card Two Copies of a Card Three Copies of a Card Four Copies of a Card Remember the Context! Conclusion Our “Blast from the Past” today will feature one of my all-time favorite cards: Electrode ex! In terms of balance, I think Electrode ex was one of the best cards ever created. Its Poke-Power was unbelievably fair, since it was unthinkably powerful but at the cost of two Prize cards. Its attack was…
Searching for an opponent to test its skills against, it emerges onto land. Once the battle is over, it returns to the sea. (Grapploct)
