20 results for: Vileplume
The Rise and Glory Days of My Pokémon Career, Including Every Deck I Played During HS-on/2012 and BLW-on/2013 Modified Formats “Emerging Powers was the set released after Worlds 2011, a year famous for its mid-season rotation, Pokemon Reversal flips, and Ross Cawthon’s The Truth deck. Jay Hornung wonderfully documented the pre-EPO HS-on format extensively in his recent article. Let me remind you of some rules at this point in the game: Player who wins the coin flip must go first. Player who goes first has no restrictions. Pokemon Catcher did not require a coin flip. Burn is permanent like Poison, and you flip to see if you take damage. Emerging Powers was a notably bad set in terms of Pokemon—you…
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…
Top 8 @ Collinsville w/ Sceptile/Vileplume, Vileplume Variants Moving Forward, and Looking Toward Charlotte “After making Top 8 at Dallas Regionals with the list that my friend Aaron Friedman made, I took a bit of a break from the game until Collinsville. With my invite secured and a big Regional done, I enjoyed my time relaxing and grinding through schoolwork. I played some games of the format before Collinsville, but not a ton. As such, I spent a lot of time Friday night scrambling to figure out what to play. I was between three options: Doll Stall, Trevenant & Dusknoir-GX/Milotic FLF, and, of course, Sceptrow. I didn’t feel as prepared for the event as…
Preliminary Expanded Decklists ×4 and Mew3/Fire Box + Green’s Blowns for Standard “The biggest things to happen in Expanded with the release of SSH are easily the emergence of Zacian as an archetype and the turn 1 no Supporter rule. Both of these things have had a decent impact on the format, and made some of the old archetypes much better and some much worse. In my initial breakdown of SSH I mentioned some of the cards that got better, so check that out for that info. I believe that I may have initially overvalued EggLet in this format though. I initially thought the card, and the deck, would be incredibly good,…
Midrange Zoroark-GX and the Sinister Vileplume Stall Reformulated for Santa Clara “When beginning my testing for SUM–UNB, I overlooked Zoroark-GX as many others have. With its decline in success due mostly to Lightning decks (Zapdos and Pikarom variants) swarming the fields, Zoroark has lost respect in the eyes of many as the “top dog” it once was. With its Standard legality coming to an end at North America Internationals in June, I thought I should give Zoroark-GX a chance to shine in this new format. Throughout its history, Zoroark-GX has been an incredibly versatile card and its ability to be utilized by many different styles of decks has been very apparent.…
It spits out thread imbued with a frigid sort of energy and uses it to tie its body to branches, disguising itself as an icicle while it sleeps. (Snom)
Tiers 1 thru 3, Melmetal/Magnezone, Passimian/Zapdos, Spread, Zororoc Deconstructed, Walls, Lightning Box, and Traditional Zororoc “Before I do anything else, I need to define what the meta currently looks like based on recent League Cup results. Zapdos Variants Pikarom/Jirachi/Zapdos Zoroark/Lycanroc Walls Blacephalon Buzzwole Decks Spread Malamar Lost March Zygarde Lycanroc Everything Else Going forward, I will always be most worried about Pikarom, Zapdos, and Zororoc. These are the decks that everyone seems to be defaulting to right now simply because of how blatantly strong they are compared to everything else. Zoroark has consistency, and Zapdos and Pikarom have the ability to hit high numbers quite easily with Electropower. I haven’t seen many people talking about…
On Day 2 + T64–128 Prizing, the Counter Decks of Collinsville (Vileplume, Zoroark/Garbodor), and the States of Both Formats “I managed to make it all the way to the Semi-Finals in Collinsville, which made me very happy. (The last time I made Top 8 at a big North American Regionals was Memphis in Dec 2017, so over a year had passed since I saw my name in bold letters in the standings after Swiss was done.) I made Top 8 as 8th seed this time, which made the achievement all the more exciting as I was “the underdog” going into top cut. I was taken down by Daniel Altavilla, ranked number 1 in the World, and I also lost…
Zooming in on Zoroark, Cradily Craft Chronicles, and Developing Dependable Decks for Dallas “The raw power and flexibility of Zoroark-GX in the Expanded format has dominated the conversation about the format since the card was released, leading many players to renounce the format all together until something is done. I have been an avid defender of the Expanded format for quite some time now, but I’m here today humbly admitting that I think it’s about time that Zoroark-GX finds some kind of check in Expanded. With all of the available tools in the Expanded format there will always be a way for Zoroark to be incredibly powerful, and unless we decide to ban…
Lurantis/Vileplume and Other Options for Toronto “Before I dive into the meat of my article, I want to comment on a few things from this past weekend in Virginia. I just wanted to play something consistent, as I felt like this format was just about executing your strategy faster and more often than your opponent. Turbo Darkrai seemed to fit the bill nicely, so after seeing Philip Schulz do well in Brazil, I played a bunch of games with his list, made a single change, and went to town. My one change was -1 Dark Energy +1 Parallel City, as I thought the extra copy would…
Recapping Roanoke, Perfecting Performance, and Talking Toronto “It was clear that the majority of top players in the community went with Decidueye or Mewtwo this weekend, with a smaller (but certainly not insignificant) chunk electing for Speed Dark, Volcanion, and M Rayquaza. A few, like Grant and Peter Kica (M Gardevoir PRC/Garbodor), took shots with unknown options, but most stayed with standard fare. I fit into that category myself, electing to pilot Decidueye/Vileplume. There was no especially brilliant reason for that choice, and my peers articulated its merits quite well last week, so I’ll refrain from doing so here. My only other viable option was M Rayquaza-EX/Gumshoos-GX, which was Sean…
It digs up the ground with its trunk. It’s also very strong, being able to carry loads of over five tons without any problem at all. (Cufant)
Three More Archetypes for Guardians Standard “For this deck, I’ve basically started with the Lapras list that I played in Brazil. We played Max Elixir to better deal with the Volcanion we expected, but thankfully we’re able to play Puzzle of Time in that slot now. Otherwise, all of the cards that you could want are basically the same between the two decks. I’m incredibly interested in testing out Sylveon as it has a nearly foolproof gameplan against Decidueye. Being able to search out Hex Maniac turn after turn is insane. On the first turn, you grab a Hex Maniac and a VS Seeker, as well…
Top 8 Melbourne Report, Tips for Mental Stability, Standard Metagame Analysis, and Counters to Decidueye “Leading up to Melbourne, my thoughts on the Standard format drastically changed in two weeks. I thought Vespiquen was far and away the best deck for Anaheim, with favorable or even matchups against Yveltal, Mewtwo, Rayquaza, Turbo Dark, and Gardevoir (without Karen). While the same would be true moving forward, I thought the popularity and success of Vespiquen could lead to Karen being teched in some decks. I even heard players contemplating this in their Yveltal and Mewtwo decks during Anaheim. My first thought for what to play in Melbourne was M Gardevoir. Yveltal, Mewtwo, and Turbo Dark were the…
Alex’s Worlds 2016 Tournament Report, Meta Trends, and Top 4 Round-Up “This year was one of the worst years for me as far as my testing regimen leading up to the World Championships. Between my move, starting a new job, and buying a car, I was incredibly busy for the months of July and August. When I did find time to test, Ninja Boy was not working on PTCGO so I wasn’t able to try out some of the crazy ideas I had like my Vileplume Toolbox. I also couldn’t properly test Waterbox, as I believed that Ninja Boy was going to revolutionize the deck by giving you late-game options to…
In Defense of Pile Shuffling, Sleeper Hits, BREAKing Point, and Decks of FATE “However, before we get into the real meat of the article, everyone here at SixPrizes has briefly detailed their shuffling methods and I would like to do the same. For me, shuffling has always been somewhat of a difficulty as I have never quite been able to tackle bridge shuffling, among other things. For my entire life, I have been eluded by various basic motor skills and so some very rudimentary aspects of shuffling prove impossible for me and my preferred means to shuffle may seem a bit primitive. In fact, Curran Hill usually made a point of making fun…
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…
When it trusts a Trainer, it will treat them to berries it’s decorated with cream. (Alcremie)