71 results for: tip
A Unique Shuffle, Early-Game Resource Management, Early-Spring Tier List, Decks, and Cards “Underground subscriber @socery requested us writers discuss our personal deck shuffling habits and I’m thrilled to talk about mine as I follow a unique shuffling formula that I picked up from an article written in 2006 by Olav Rokne titled “Strength in Numbers: Stopping Shady Shuffles.” In the article, Olav discusses the shuffling method developed by statistician Ian Vincent which is a combination of pile, riffle, and hindu shuffles. (The hindu shuffle is my own addition.) I take my deck and shuffle it into seven piles from left to right, then take the two piles on the far right and deal them…
On Works Past and Updating Old Theories for New Formats “Before I crack into some of the concepts this game used to encompass, we had a request to share our own technique with regards to shuffling. I do a six-pile shuffle multiple times before and after each game while I get to know my opponent. During the game I’ll do simple riffle shuffles a few times. I do want to mention one technique that proved useful. It might not be relevant now, but when Lysandre’s Trump Card was legal I made sure to do a thorough shuffle of my deck when my discard pile got shuffled back in. Since the discarding…
Five Methods for Evaluating New Cards and Uncovering Opportunities at State Championships “Compared to the other methods of analysis I’m going to address, understanding reprints isn’t as deep as the others. In part, that’s what makes it the perfect place to begin. The reprints are cards we’ve seen before — exact copies — but the metagame in which they exist may be slightly or wholly different. A pretty substantial disclaimer is needed here — the game of Pokémon has been around long enough, that sometimes old cards that were excellent simply aren’t good enough anymore. Hitmonchan and Electabuzz from Base Set were reprinted in Stormfront without fanfare, but when Energy Removal 2…
The Persistence of Time, Top Three Plays for States, and Two Rogue Counters “One of biggest skill gaps I see between players of mid- and high-tier caliber is their ability to recognize win conditions within a reasonable amount of time. Some of you might be thinking: “What are you talking about Russ? All I have to do is take 6 Prizes.” While this is the main win condition of this game — other than say the Bench-out or deck-out — I believe when preparing for a best-of-three format players need to have a good grasp on the reach of their deck and its ability to make comebacks in difficult situations. I’ll use my tournament run…
The Less Talked About Decks of the Standard Format “This is something that I’ve had to learn the hard way from testing with BKP legal is to do all you can to have more than 3 cards in your hand. Delinquent can come out at any time and discard a sizeable chunk of your hand. Especially in a format without N, it is often better to not use Ultra Ball to discard unwanted resources to instead pad your hand size and keep more than 3 cards. Often, you can’t help but put yourself in situations where a Delinquent will get rid of your whole hand. And even sometimes when you…
What appears to be an iron helmet is actually hardened hair. This Pokémon lives for the thrill of battle. (Perrserker)
Thoughts and Methods for Cracking the Format “My main purpose for this article, however, is to try and walk everyone through my thought process for the Regionals this weekend. I am convinced now more than ever that it is the time for a rogue deck to arise and conquer the field. I cannot remember a time where the format felt as “defined” as it is currently. There are a very finite number of decks and almost no one seems interested to diverging from this established order. I’m sure that a large amount of this is due in part to the menial impact that Ancient Origins and BREAKthrough…
7 New Year’s Pokémon Resolutions (and an Update on Engines) “In my last article I dug pretty deep into various Supporter engines that appear in top decks of our two main formats. I want to tweak one of those engines here after seeing one deck in particular find success during City Championships. This deck centers around the Entei from Ancient Origins with the Theta Double Ancient Trait and features a Supporter/Item engine dedicated to using either Blacksmith or Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick with ease. I’m currently running my build with Gallade BKT — take a look: As you can see, perhaps the most striking thing about this list is the…
Investigating Effective Supporter Builds in the Standard and Expanded Formats “Let’s first look at Supporter trends that haven’t altered much for a while. These are pretty obvious, but I’ll spend some time addressing situations that deviate from the norm (e.g. is it ever okay to play anything other than 4 Professor Juniper/Sycamore?). For beginners, this may provide a rich explanation for why the top decks are built the way they are. Advanced player may want to glance at this section briefly, as I’m sure your decks are already following these patterns. Since the introduction of Professor Juniper, nearly every deck that seeks to be competitive includes four copies of the…
What to Expect, My Week 1 Picks, and Quick Tips for Cities Success “In no particular order, here is a list of decks that I expect to see the most of come Week 1: Night March Vespiquen Tyrantrum/Bronzong Magnezone/Raikou M Manectric/Regice Mienshao The XY-on rotation is still relatively fresh, and consequently we’re sure to see a lot of variance. However, right off the bat, I expect that we will see a lot of Night March, Vespiquen, and Tyrantrum. Night March and Vespiquen are always crowd favorites, as they are cheap to build and relatively easy to play. Tyrantrum on the other hand is a little more difficult to pilot, but people will likely…
On Adopting a Winning Mentality (for Cities), a BREAKthrough Critique, and More Standard Lists “Before I begin with the nitty gritty of my guide, I want to make it clear what my mentality is when it comes to these events. Just as there are many different players and thinkers within this game, there are equally many different ways to approach achieving success in events and I believe my own to be a very polarizing one. That is, I strive to win 100% of the events I attend and nothing else. If I cannot make cut, I have no interest in playing anymore and I will never attempt to earn the meager participation Championship Points…
It’s famous for its high level of intelligence, and the large size of its brain is proof that it also possesses immense psychic power. (Orbeetle)
Moving Forward with Standard, and a Guide to Coping with Format Rotations
“Before we get too far into discussion, let’s set the stage for Standard. Recently I’ve read a lot of hate regarding the current Standard. And I mean a lot. However, consider this: We haven’t had a genuine rotation in almost three years! Things like Juniper and N have been legal for around four years! Back in the days of 2004-2008, format rotations were so dramatic, critical engines and Supporter lineups changed almost every season. Here’s a brief, non-exhaustive overview of the cards decks used to function back then: 2004-2006 Setup Pokémon: Pidgeot RG, Magcargo DX 20 Supporters: TV Reporter, Steven’s Advice,…
Regionals Retrospective, BREAKthrough Standouts, and Early Reads on the Standard Meta “My previous article’s discussion was primarily focused on the idea of healthy competition as a path through which one can better themself. In a similar vein, I’d like to center my tournament reports on both the mistakes that I made and the cases in which certain situations didn’t play out as I had hoped. I believe that most people tend to hone in on the positives of an experience in a way that clouds the negative parts of that experience. Perhaps if they end up placing in the Top 64 of a Regional tournament, they would considering themselves as having…
The Six-Step Process for Choosing a Deck and Three Logical Plays for Worlds “Step 1: Make a list of all potentially viable decks. The logical first step in choosing a deck is listing out all of the potentially viable decks in the format. This starts the wheels turning in my head. At this point, I’m already putting together a short list of the decks that I could see myself playing. It also gives you a really useful list for thinking about your matchups later in the process. Step 2: Gather intelligence. Next is when I think about the important decks in the metagame. The big question is, “What are the threats?” Usually, I…
The Importance of Competition and Primal Groudon Three Ways “I know that this topic has been covered many times, so I’ll try to keep it brief. But since I’m discussing competition in general, I really wanted to take some time to cover what I think are the top five most important things to do if you’re trying to become a better player. I’m sure many of you already do some of these things, and these are areas where I could improve upon as well. As a new season is coming to a head, I think it would be helpful for each of us to reflect back on how our…
The Rise of Exeggutor and Other Overlooked Cards “This walking, stumbling, three-headed tree of coconuts is the entire reason I wanted to write about this topic. When I heard that Ross Cawthon was playing Exeggutor at St. Louis Regionals, I was stunned. Actually, I’ll just admit it — I was jealous. Jealous because I tried to make Exeggutor work so many times on separate occasions after its release! I distinctly remember driving home from Illinois States 2014 thinking I broke the format with my Exeggutor PLF/Rocky Helmet/Rock Guard/Mew-EX deck. I excitedly built it when I got home … and lost nearly every game I played. And mind you,…
__________ takes this form when enraged. It won’t stop spewing flames until its rage has settled, even if its body starts to melt. (Galarian Darmanitan)
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