22 results for: UPR–HIF
PikaRom Tuned and Matched Up for Knoxville “This was the list I played in Atlantic City. I played it alongside my main testing partner, Tanner Hurley. The other person in our squad was Adler Pierce, the person who pitched us the idea in the first place. Adler played 2 Hoopa as opposed to 1 Hoopa and 1 Absol. Adler made Top 64 and Tanner made Top 32 alongside myself, so I’d say the tournament for this list was a success. Going into Atlantic City, I had definitely done my fair share of trash talk about PikaRom, stating that it simply wasn’t a good enough deck anymore, and…
Another Take on Mew Box/Jirachi and a Bold Blacephalon-GX/Naganadel for Knoxville “As you may know, I competed in the Atlantic City Regional Championships and stuck to the deck that has brought me so much success at local Cups and Challenges, Mew Box. Here’s how my tournament went. Day 1 R1: Dark Box … LWW … 1-0-0 R2: NagQuag … WW … 2-0-0 R3: Blacephalon-GX … WW … 3-0-0 R4: Ability ReshiZard … LWL … 3-1-0 R5: Mirror … WW … 4-1-0 R6: PikaRom … WLW … 5-1-0 R7: Mirror w/ Jirachi … LWL … 5-2-0 R8: Green’s ReshiZard … WW … 6-2-0 R9: Blacephalon-GX … ID … 6-2-1 Day 2 R10:…
Mew Box/Ninetales for Knoxville “This inclusion was mainly for Malamar. Eevee-GX can do 100 damage, which is enough to start taking cheap KOs early on. Once Eevee-GX gets attacked by Giratina LOT, that is where Ascension DNA comes in handy. You are able to fully heal Eevee-GX and take another KO with Flareon-GX. Theoretically, you can take 3 Prize cards (or more) with this strategy. This is good because you will be giving up just 2 in return. Also, as Peter Kica mentioned, Flareon-GX’s Power Burner-GX is similar to Victini {*}’s Infinity and is great copied by Mewtwo & Mew-GX. I always look to…
The Making of Quagsire/Naganadel for the DC Open, My Latest List, and What Has Changed About the Deck “Going into Worlds, I expected the meta to be mostly these five decks: PikaRom, now with Raichu & Alolan Raichu-GX Green’s ReshiZard Malamar variants Blowns Mewtwo & Mew-GX decks When looking at this list, I noticed that three of the decks—PikaRom, Blowns, and Mewtwo—did not have a good answer to attacking Keldeo-GX. Benching a Keldeo does not immediately win the game against PikaRom, as they have a few 1-Prize attackers, but as long as you could power up several consecutive Keldeos, they would be in trouble. (Mind you, this is before 1-of Power Plant was mainstream in PikaRom). Using the…
All About Malamar (List, Matchups, Techs) for Knoxville, Cups, and Challenges “The biggest surprise coming out of Atlantic City was the failure of ReshiZard—in any form—to make Top 8 (or even Top 16). Almost nobody could have seen this coming because of how inherently powerful the deck is. I suspect that the lack of a Top 8 spot can be attributed to the fact that very few notable players actually played the deck, with most of the “top” players opting to play PikaRom and Mew Box instead. Both of these decks have legitimate shots at beating ReshiZard, so that decision made sense. ReshiZard’s numbers will probably start to decline, but I…
If its fleece grows too long, ______ won’t be able to move. Cloth made with the wool of this Pokémon is surprisingly strong. (Wooloo)
Comparing Winning Mew Boxes, Which One To Play, and Other Options for Knoxville “First off, we saw two very different takes of Mew Box win Atlantic City and Cologne. It wasn’t a surprise for anyone to see Mew Box win, as the deck is indeed extremely powerful. However, the lists are so different and contrasting in their approaches that it is actually quite fascinating to see them both win. It is no secret that the original Mew Box deck that won the Worlds Championships this past August had a few clear and exploitable weaknesses, for example, things such as 2 Fairy Charm {P} in GardEon decks, 2 Keldeo-GX on the field with nothing…
On My Ability Zard from Atlantic City and the Wacky Eeveelutions Deck You’ll All Been Asking For “Leading up to Atlantic City, Ability ReshiZard received an immense amount of hype. So much so that players began teching for the mirror with cards such as Stealthy Hood to prevent Ninetales TEU from using Nine Temptations on their Benched attackers and even altering the whole build of the deck to include multiple single-Prize attackers, such as Blacephalon UNB and extra copies of Turtonator DRM. In my opinion, this surplus of options has proven to make the deck inconsistent and unreliable. I have coined the non-Zard Ability Zard deck “Fire Greninja” because of its high variance and proclivity to brick…
Dissecting and Improving Pidgeotto Control from AC/Cologne for Knoxville “Frankly, I wasn’t surprised to see Pidgeotto Control do well. It can do great things in 50-minute Bo3 with a long Game 1 and dismantle inexperienced players if they make a mistake. That being said, it requires a fair bit of knowledge to play, and mistakes with the deck don’t go unpunished. Two completely different variants did well: Sander Wojcik’s teched version and Grant Manley’s Jirachi version. Sander wrote a great post in Heyfonte summarizing the subtleties in his and Grant’s list, so I greatly urge you to check it out. Both lists are also available online on Heyfonte and Limitless.…
Blacephalon-GX/Naganadel and Jirachi/Mew Box for Atlantic City “This card allows you to take Prize cards without removing your Fire Energy from play, which makes Charging Up more efficient. Its Ability is nice in conjunction with both Beast Ring and Charging Up to take a 1HKO with Hot Burn-GX. Something to note is that Hot Burn-GX can take down a Jirachi TEU for a single Energy. This way, instead of using Burst-GX for a discarded Prize card, you can keep the Prize card rather than have to discard it. This is fine even if Heatran-GX gets taken down because then you will be on a Beast Ring turn.…
My Predicted Meta for Atlantic City and the Perfect (Maybe) Ability ReshiZard “Unfortunately, I don’t know enough about Europe or Latin America to be able to make a prediction on what those player bases will play in Cologne and São Paulo. The format hasn’t changed much since Worlds, but people’s perceptions on certain decks has. Ability ReshiZard was almost completely ignored by Americans, and that was an oversight. Now, most would say that it is the BDIF. Quagsire/Naganadel also emerged from the DC Open as a threat to be reckoned with, but after playing with and against it, I have to say that it isn’t a great deck. But what does this…
Be cautious of the ectoplasmic body surrounding its soul. You’ll become stiff as stone if you touch it. (Cursola)
Shifts in Standard, Malamar: the Squid-surgence, Sequencing, and a Checkmate Update “Though I’m at a distance from the competitive scene, it’s still quite easy to keep track of what’s doing well because of social media posts. Almost all tournaments have their Top 8 posted, and most sponsored players post their list after each tournament. It’s been interesting to see the meta shift due to changes in popular opinion. For one, AbilityZard has become AbilityNoZard, with most lists playing 0 Reshiram & Charizard-GX! On another note, Malamar has become one of the popular decks of the format. Most notable players have always spurned Malamar, instead choosing to play more consistent decks. Magically,…
Lists, Pros, and Cons for 10 Top Decks this Weekend (São Paulo, AC, and Cologne) “Ability ReshiZard Mew Box Blacephalon-GX/Naganadel LOT PikaRom GardEon Pidgeotto Control Malamar/Spell Tag QuagNag Green’s ReshiZard Dark Box As crazy as it may sound, TAG TEAMs actually don’t have high enough HP to survive the monster attacks of the current metagame. Before Worlds 2019, it was common to see Super Scoop Up, Mixed Herbs, and Great Potion in decks to heal damage, but nowadays these cards have lost a lot of their relevance. Another insane aspect of the deck is that we have non-GX Pokémon that can easily Knock Out TAG TEAMs on the same turn they are benched. Each one…
On Countering Ability ReshiZard, Another Reset Stamp PikaRom, and GardEon v. ReshiZard “The tier list I posted a few weeks ago still holds as of today, especially the Tier 1 and 1.5 decks, as we have seen those decks keep dominating League Cups and Challenges per Facebook posts detailing results. I do believe, however, that it is worth making one small change and separating the Malamar variants, as shown below: Ability ReshiZard Mew Box Blacephalon-GX/Naganadel LOT Pidgeotto Control PikaRom Green’s ReshiZard GardEon Malamar (Pure Psychic variant) I’m not including any Tier 2 decks this time because, frankly, they’re not good enough. They might seem cool in concept (like Dark Box), but in…
Green’s Dojo ReshiZard and Reset Stamp PikaRom for Atlantic City/Cologne/São Paulo “As the format has settled I’ve noticed that Green’s ReshiZard has fallen by the wayside in favor of more aggressive options for the Best-of-1 League Cup/Challenge format. In the Best-of-1 format, matches are often decided by the initial coin flip and the first couple of turns, so playing the most aggressive, board-controlling deck is correct. But the Best-of-3 format introduces another level of skill and deck building, which is where my favorite deck in this Standard format shines. Green’s ReshiZard placed Top 8 at Sheffield, proving that it has potential, but few have faith in its power after seeing it…
What Sheffield’s Results Mean for AC/Köln/SP and My Current Top Play (Mew Box) + Matchups “At Sheffield we saw GardEon take the win, which, based on the reactions I have seen across the internet, was rather unexpected. I am not overly surprised that the deck won an event because all it takes is one of in the field them avoiding Ability ReshiZard enough times to make it into Top 8. According to David Ferreira, he hit Ability ReshiZard four times during the event and finished with a record of 0-2-2 against it. This means that he beat literally every other deck he played against. That’s pretty scary. Another interesting fact is that Mewtwo Box managed…
This hungry Pokémon swallows Arrokuda whole. Occasionally, it makes a mistake and tries to swallow a Pokémon other than its preferred prey. (Cramorant)