33 results for: UPR–CEC
Malamar Three Ways (Standard, Ultra Necrozma, Unit Energy) and AbilityZard ×2 (Pidgey Teched, Max Consistency) for Daytona Beach “Malamar seems to be in a decent place in the metagame right now. With a majority of the top decks being TAG TEAM-based, a single-Prized deck should be able to take advantage of that. The flip side of the argument, and what I mostly hear as the death of Malamar, is Mallow and Lana. While healing 120 does give Malamar problems, I don’t think that alone is enough to push it out of the metagame. I was able to snag a 1st place at a League Challenge and a Top 4 at a League Cup this past week with Malamar…
LAIC/MewMew Rewind, an Aside on Lost March, ADP for Daytona Beach, and Treasures and Traps (LAIC Edition) “Like many of our other writers, I chose to play Mewtwo and Mew-GX at the Latin America International Championships because it simply felt like the best deck for the event. When I tested Arceus & Dialgia & Palkia-GX (colloquially referred to as “ADP” for short) against fellow author Jon Eng’s Mewtwo & Mew-GX the night before the event, the deck felt underwhelming, and I decided to switch last-minute to the list below: Differences from Jon’s list include: -1 Pokegear 3.0 -1 Solgaleo-GX SM104 +2 Reset Stamp I finished a mediocre 3-3-1 drop on the day after an encouraging 3-1 start,…
Amulet Mew Box for Daytona Beach “These three arguments make a lot of sense in my mind, and thus this is the list that I’ve been practicing with and enjoying since LAIC: Mega Lopunny & Jigglypuff-GX and Greninja-GX fit right into the list as necessary metagame adaptations with the new presence of Keldeo-GX as a force to be reckoned with. I enjoy having access to 4 Dedenne-GX, and I’ve found myself utilizing all 4 more than you’d think. Every other attacker is standard as of now, but Latios-GX and Charizard & Braixen-GX have merit to being in the deck, but space is incredibly tight. Other inclusions…
A Thorough Top 32 LAIC Recap w/ Mew Box and Just-Maybe GardEon for Daytona Beach “Heading into LAIC, we were introduced to a brand new set (Cosmic Eclipse), as has become tradition with International Championships lately, and at first glance there appeared to be a handful of game-changing cards and cards that gave a few old decks slight power spikes. I wrote about my Top 5 cards from Cosmic Eclipse in my last article. I was far off with Reshiram & Zekrom-GX and Mimikyu CEC 97, but the other three cards that I listed made an instant impact at LAIC. Great Catcher proved itself to be the best card from the set, but I overlooked…
A Quick Recap on Perfection from LAIC and ADP for Daytona Beach “To the surprise of some, AbilityZard reappeared and took down the tournament. I attribute this success to the deck’s unacknowledged strength, and mainly to an inability to properly deal with it. Very few decks can stop AbilityZard when it’s rolling. Even so, the decks that can stop it are on the outskirts of the meta: Doll Stall and Blacephalon/Pidgeotto. The Naganadel & Guzzlord-GX/Mismagius deck has a good matchup against it on paper, but “on paper” is where AbilityZard outshines other decks. When you assume that both decks set up reasonably well, Welder outshines all else. I remember a conversation I had…
Icy scales fall from its wings like snow as it flies over fields and mountains. The temperature of its wings is less than −290 degrees Fahrenheit. (Frosmoth)
Jon’s LAIC Report w/ Mew Box and Updates for Daytona Beach “As said before, I played Mew Box due to it being a proven inherently-strong deck. This and the fact that it has a good matchup against ADP, one of the most hyped decks going into the event, meant to me that it was at least a reasonable call. This was my first time playing Mew Box ever in a sanctioned event, so I knew I’d have to be super careful with my plays. To start, here’s the list I played to the event: Note: I’ll go into card decisions later when I talk about the updated list. The event for…
Turbo Flareon-GX, Fire Box, or Whatever You Want to Call It (Detailed and Updated from LAIC) “Note: The list I played in São Paulo is already on Limitless, so I won’t put it here. I was pretty much lost on what to play until Michael Catron told me about Flareon-GX being good in Fire. I, living up to my habit of not testing my final list for Brazil, built the deck and went to sleep after playing zero games with it. Usually, this is a bad idea, but it has worked out well for me a few times now. I sat down for Round 1, having zero clue if my deck actually functioned and somewhat nervous…
Recapping LAIC 2020 w/ Exploratory Looks into Robin’s ReshiZard, DDG’s GuzzNag, and Green’s ADP “My tournament run with Mewtwo & Mew-GX felt like a roller coaster of emotions. I was extremely excited to play in my first big tournament of the season, only to lose Round 1 in a disappointing fashion as my Great Catcher decided to live in the bottom 2 cards of my deck. I managed to recover to a 4-1 record, where once again whiffed a card in the bottom 2, which made me tie (instead of win) against Malamar, putting me at a 4-1-1 record rather than 5-1 (and in a prime position to make Day 2). After that, my…
Pidgeotto Control and Pidgeotto/Blacephalon for LAIC “With the release of Cosmic Eclipse, Pidgeotto Control has gotten a couple of tools (which I will detail below) that make it an even more formidable deck than it was before. Prior to Cosmic Eclipse, Pidgeotto Control had three Top 8 finishes between Atlantic City and Knoxville Regionals and a Top 8 finish at Worlds, which showed how powerful it was from the get-go. With its new additions, everyone attending LAIC should focus their attention on either (A) playing Pidgeotto Control or (B) countering it. As always, my lists going into testing are consistency-focused, and most of the techs are…
Blacephalon/Naganadel Pumped Up for LAIC “This card does wonders. Not only for its Ultra Conversion Ability that lets you draw cards, but also for its attack, Venom Shot. If the opponent does not play Mew UNB or benches it a turn too late, then Venom Shot is MVP when it comes to victory. So many decks play Dedenne-GX. That is 2 free Prize cards with Venom Shot. If they play a TAG TEAM attacker, then that’s 3 prize cards as well you can eventually take. Not to mention, Burst-GX gives you 1 free prize card, making for a total of 6 prize cards. This is…
This Pokémon slept for aeons while in the form of a statue. It was asleep for so long, people forgot that it ever existed. (Zamazenta)
The Metagame Review for LAIC 2019, Part 2 “No one seems to be caring much about Blacephalon GX. I think most players will not use Tapu Fini UNM because of Cosmic Eclipse, which brought so many new cards that caught everyone’s attention, and it will deviate away from being the strong deck that has been since its release. We have to keep in mind that Blacephalon GX made Top 8 in the last LAIC and the finals in Worlds 2019. However, I do think Blacephalon GX might have issues dealing with some archetypes that are shaping up the current metagame, namely ADP, Malamar/Giratina, and GardEon (with Fairy Charm…
UPR–CEC Meta Developments, Updating Pidgeotto Control, and Asides on Checkmate and Oranguru UPR “At the beginning, I posed lots of questions. Now, my job is to answer them. I’ll specifically get into Pidgeotto Control later on in the article, as that’s the main topic I’ll be discussing. For now, I’ll do a brief overview of the decks I expect to gain (or change) a lot from the new set release. PikaRom will flop due to the absolute lack of card support it received in Cosmic Eclipse. The problem isn’t even Mega Lopunny & Jigglypuff-GX; the strong decks are too difficult. To start, ADP should be able to wipe the floor with PikaRom because…
Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX (ADP) and GardEon for LAIC “On the other hand, ADP impressed me quite a bit after giving it a try and focusing on getting attacks off on turn 1 with N’s Resolve. My initial thoughts for it were that it was going to be too slow overall. Using up a GX attack and not dealing any damage? That felt awful to me. However, N’s Resolve helps you attack with Ultimate Ray so quickly that often it’s fine if you don’t end up using Altered Creation-GX+ at all. The second part of the deck, walling with Keldeo-GX and Chaotic Swell, has also proven to be more…
ZoroGarb for Portland, Jon’s Idea Dump (UPR–CEC Edition), and Charizard & Braixen Hand Lock for LAIC “-1 Cobalion-GX -1 Mr. Mime PLF +1 Garbodor GRI +1 Brigette For the most part, I thought Michael’s list was perfect. It was well suited for the expected meta. However, to the surprise of some, Archie’s Blastoise, arguably the most hyped deck going into the event, didn’t have a single spot in Day 2. This wasn’t even due to the deck doing poorly or having a poor place in the meta, it was mainly because not many people played it. The changes I’ve made to the list are under the assumption that the same will hold true in Portland. Cobalion…
Cosmic Eclipse Highlights and Malamar for LAIC “Cosmic Eclipse is one of the most impactful sets that we’ve seen in a long time. In a format that lacks a lot of consistency cards, and has issues with single-Prize decks gaining any real traction beyond Malamar, Cosmic Eclipse adds so many game-changing cards. For instance, we had no way to recover Pokemon from the discard pile that isn’t a Supporter card. Now, we have an Item that does it (Lana’s Fishing Rod). There’s a lot of cards in this set, and quite a few of them are going to see play to some extent in both formats. Okay.…
It’s skilled at both offense and defense, and it gets pumped up when cheered on. But if it starts showboating, it could put itself in a tough spot. (Cinderace)
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