71 results for: tip
The Practice of Perfecting Practice in a Small Time Frame “The first step in a rapid-fire testing regimen is to gather data on recent tournaments. At the most basic level, this means just seeing which deck won the most recent tournament and finding out which decks made top 8. Many players will either gravitate towards the most popular/successful deck or try to counter it. Most of the time, I’d actually advocate waiting until an upcoming large tournament completes before heavily testing a deck. You want to make sure you are able to consider as much information as possible. If you prepare for a tournament using out of date metagame results,…
Junior/Senior Metagame Analysis for Melbourne Internationals “Even before the competition in Athens and Anaheim, the two most recent Standard Regionals, it would have been a safe guess that Dark decks would be the best-performing decks in Juniors. Yveltal has won just about every Regional in the division this year, which is not surprising in the slightest. It has a decent matchup against almost any deck, it’s fairly easy to play at a respectable level, and it just hits hard. Juniors like decks that do a lot of damage and set up consistently. 3 Volcanion 1 Turbo Darkrai 1 Yveltal/Garbodor 1 M Rayquaza 1 Houndoom/Raticate 1 Mewtwo/Garbodor 2…
The Pokémon Precedent, Anomaly and Meta, Early Picks for Anaheim, and What Else to Watch For “I believe that in the Pokemon TCG, history repeats itself over and over again. While theoretically possible, it is very rare for a deck to win a major event and never be heard from again. This is because not all cards are created equal — certain cards were intended to be very good on purpose. A perfect (and perhaps my favorite) example of this is Yveltal-EX. Not only can it do dangerous amounts of damage with Evil Ball, but it can keep Energy on the board with Y Cyclone for future Evil Ball attacks. Add in a solid 170 HP on a…
An Analysis of the ABC Metagame, the Last of PRC–EVO, Nash’s Choice, and League Cups with Toad/Bats + Turbo Darkrai “I use the word “observe” with clear intention above, as unfortunately I was unable to participate in the format as much as I would have liked to. In my last article, I spent some time discussing my lackluster performance with Mega Scizor at Fort Wayne and highlighted my favor with Yveltal/Garbodor but outside of a League Challenge that occurred shortly after my article was released (which I would win with the exact list included in my last article) I was unable to attend either Dallas or Athens Regionals, both of which I wish I had been able to make. I spent…
Revelations from (Actually) Testing, Three Favorites for Orlando, and A Few Almost-Theres “I’m not quite sure what made me focus a huge section of my article on these opinions that I have formed through testing, but it probably had something to do with the new job that I have gotten within the past month. Through growing up and finally getting a 9-to-5 job, I’ve realized that not everyone can practice Pokemon as much as I do. There’s always something that could be in the way, whether it be a lack of cards, a lack of players to test with, or even just not having the spare time. People are struggling to figure…
With jaws that can shear through steel rods, this highly aggressive Pokémon chomps down on its unfortunate prey. (Drednaw)
Is 500 CP Too Much, Los Tres Grandes, Yveltal Moves, and the Night Machine “After last week’s announcement that we’ll be required to earn 500 Championship Points this season in order to qualify for Worlds, I saw a smattering of posts on Facebook and Twitter from disheartened players who now believe that their chance of earning an invitation to Worlds is much closer to zero than in previous years. Before you jump to the same conclusion, there are several other factors I believe we should be looking at in order to judge this season’s competitive structure in comparison to those of past seasons. We’ve already seen that several of the smaller Regional Championships (Edmonton, Vancouver, Kitchener, Kansas City, New…
On Succeeding as a Time-Crunched Competitor and the Challenges of PokéParenting “The first time I handed my daughter a Pokemon trading card I had a clear picture of what would happen: she would hold it gently, examine the character depicted on the card, then look up at me with eyes of adoration and simply ask, “Daddy, what is this?” I would then motion for her to sit on my lap while I recalled memories of the game. The stories of tournaments won and prizes earned would intrigue her and she would yearn to read and do the math required to play the game. She would do this with lightning speed, proving…
The Key Tips Forgotten, New Standard Decks for Florida, and Retooled Classics for Philly “If you have not already read my “Step by Step” article that I posted in June, check it out! Inside that article I provide my guide for preparing yourself for big tournaments. I want to add a little bit more to that guide since I have learned a lot since then. There are three main points I want to dive into that I believe to have a huge impact on success at tournaments: playtesting with tournament rules, feeling confident enough to play fast, and always planning ahead. Going into the World Championships, I had clocked in about 50-60 hours of…
On the Big Play! Pokémon Changes, Rotation Implications, and Three Decks That Could Dominate New Standard “I’m sure that everyone has seen or heard about the major changes that are going to occur in the upcoming 2016–2017 competitive season which were published Monday on Pokemon.com. Almost everything in the press release is extremely good news that will lead to a brighter future for this game, especially the larger cash payouts and higher number of tournaments for everyone to play in. I’ll break down each of these huge changes and discuss what they mean for the new competitive season (compared to previous seasons). Every single change that TPCi is making this new season will basically be a test-run for…
A Test for Whether Cards are Staple-Worthy or Binder Snacks “Within the past couple of years I’ve put work into a side project without saying much about it, a card game that shares similarities with the Pokemon TCG but still has its own look and feel. I’ve shelved it for most of this year, but I bring it up because just the initial stage of creating cards and designing mechanics helped me understand something about card games I feel many aren’t aware of — that “balance” in a game can be dangerously fragile. When I started to piece together the strategies that would comprise my card game, a funny thing…
The lessons of many harsh battles have taught it how to accurately judge an opponent’s strength. (Corvisquire)
On Perfecting the Netdeck, Tips for the Night March Mirror, and Early Favorites for Worlds “The first time I heard of Zygarde/Vileplume was at breakfast the morning after the Origins Win-a-Trip tournament. Sean Foisy was reading off results from the Japanese Mega Battle tournament and I instantly scoffed at the idea. Sean was not so quick to write it off; he had tried to perfect a Fighting Toolbox type of deck during the week and it was only because of my insistence that Night March would always emerge victorious that we stopped testing it. The deck later bubbled out of Chilean Nationals which garnered the concept even more attention, but I was still skeptical. It…
Henry’s Guide for Big Tournaments, Origins Results Discussion, and the New Meta “Even though I feel as if I could write a book on the proper ways to test and fuel your body on tournament day, I want to make it as simple as possible and break the process down into somewhat of a timeline. Though the timeline has been altered a little bit due to the Origins tournament, I still believe there to be five different phases. These phases are: “Research & Record,” “Test, Test, Ten,” “The Final Four,” “Selection Eve,” and “Gameday Diligence.” I want to give you all a schedule as to when I think each of these phases…
A Seniors Kansas Regionals Report and Reflecting on Myself as a Player “The list is fairly standard, aside from a few things, which I’ll go over here. 1 Mr. Mime BKT With Dark being the deck to beat from the past two weeks, we wanted Mr. Mime to protect us from things like Fright Night and Night Spear, not to mention the occasional Fighting deck, which we felt may see popularity due to the release of things like Carbink BREAK. I actually never played against the Dark mirror all day, making this card useless for me, though I still think the inclusion was warranted. 1 Xerosic Xerosic was put in with the…
An Examination into the Seldom Accredited Game-Ending Plays of Past and Present “No, I won’t keep you in suspense, haha … My brother won his game shortly after time was called. Yes, he was down 6-1 at that time, meaning that he took all 6 Prize cards with a single attack. That attack? Holy Star. This handy (and very expensive) Rayquaza was thrown into our deck as a sort of “Hail Mary” play. While the deck’s main strategy had nothing to do with this card, it was included because of its ability to win games with a single attack. In cases where defeat seemed inevitable, one could switch gears and — given…
Mega Gardevoir, Vileplume Variants, Meta Predictions, and Team Tips “Right away, this deck is one of the reasons I’m taking this approach today. Last spring saw me come painstakingly — literally, less than a second — from achieving a Top 8 with Gardevoir in Salt Lake City. Sadly, it wasn’t to be, as I tied my way out of contention by the margin of time it took my opponent to move his hand from promoting a new Active to drawing a card, leaving myself with a millisecond-long Turn 0. Nevertheless, the deck was a gutsy meta call then — I knew my chances of beating Night March and Flareon, both significant factors in the format…
The core on its chest absorbs energy emanating from the lands of the Galar region. This energy is what allows _________ to stay active. (Eternatus)
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