36 results for: Zoroark
ZoroGarb 2.0 and PikaTickets for Daytona “I personally believe that Justin Kulas and I came incredibly close to achieving the perfect list for Greensboro. Here is said list: Going forward, I’d say that this list is a perfectly acceptable choice to play in Daytona this weekend. It’s one of the most consistent lists that still includes tech cards for nearly every matchup; however, I believe there are cards that are better in the list now that we’ve seen Drampa/Garbodor win an event and Pikarom make a comeback. There are a few key changes that I believe allow the deck to handle almost any matchup we’re going…
Highlighting Denver’s Unexpected Standouts: Bodybuilding/Zoroark Control, Draw/Celebi & Venusaur-GX, and Order Pad/PikaRom “Denver was a lot of fun and here’s a quick report on how my games went: Denver Regionals / 640 Masters / SUM–TEU Day 1 R1 — Alolan Muk/Garbodor/Psyduck — WW R2 — Zoroark-GX/Lycanroc-GX — WLL R3 — Buzzwole-GX/Zygarde-GX/Lycanroc-GX — WW R4 — Zoroark-GX/Lycanroc-GX — WLL R5 — Blacephalon-GX/Naganadel — WW R6 — Pikachu & Zekrom-GX/Zapdos — WW R7 — Blacephalon-GX/Naganadel — WW R8 — Regigigas/Hoopa — WW R9 — Blacephalon-GX/Naganadel — ID Day 2 R10 — Zapdos/Buzzwole/Nihilego — LL R11 — Pikachu & Zekrom-GX/Zapdos — WLW R12 — Buzzwole-GX/Lucario-GX — WW R13 — Blacephalon-GX/Naganadel — WW R14 — Pikachu…
How to Approach a “Solved” Format and Kenny’s Play for Denver (Zoroark/Lycanroc/Lucario) “This puts players in a situation that I always find interesting: Do you continue to do what you’ve done for most of the format, just jamming what you feel is the best deck and hoping for the best? Do you try to find a rogue deck that has good match ups versus your expected metagame? Do you try out some spicy new tech in an established archetype that you hope will give you an edge? Does the answer to any of these questions change if you’re also attending the European International Championship later this month? My days of worrying about…
A Look at the Established Contenders (Lightning Toolbox, Zapdos/Ultra Beasts, Blacephalon, Zororoc, and Ultra Necrozma/Malamar) for Denver Regionals “This deck can play an aggressive Zapdos plan, but also gets to transition into Pikachu & Zekrom-GX. This deck can’t go for the Turn 1 Full Blitz reliably, but it gives up that line for a lot of additional versatility. Let’s look at all of the different attackers this deck supports! Zapdos Pikachu & Zekrom-GX Zeraora-GX Tapu Koko-GX Jolteon-GX Tapu Koko {*} (Hey, it can attack!) The lines are all thin, but it doesn’t really matter too much as you have so many options. One thing that is important to stress with this deck is that no, you won’t always…
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…
The faster a ________ can beat out a rhythm with its two sticks, the more respect it wins from its peers. (Thwackey)
Zoroark/Garbodor, Sceptile/Decidueye, and White Kyurem/Articuno for Denver “I first got inspiration for looking at the Zoroark/Garbodor/Alolan Muk combo when Pablo wrote about Alex Cole’s T32 list from Collinsville which I liked. The combo of the new Alolan Muk with Trashalanche is obvious and seems insane to me for a lot of different reasons. I was also inspired after watching Alex Garcia crush Day 1 with a more Dark-focused version of Zoroark utilizing Weavile, Nanu, and Black Market {*} alongside Zoroark-GX, which lead to the monstrosity you see above. The idea here is to utilize Zoroark-GX for early game pressure through Riotous Beating while setting up your smaller…
Recapping Toronto’s Headlines, the Two Paths, and on Trevenant, Zoroark/Garbodor, and Night March for Greensboro “Players had been clamoring for a Lusamine ban for quite some time, and about a month ago TPCi listened, giving it and Delinquent the boot from the format. While it’s probably not a good use of anyone’s time to envision how the results of Toronto would’ve looked had those two cards been legal, I think we can all agree we likely wouldn’t have seen such a diverse metagame under the old ban list. Even more importantly, the community has expressed almost unanimous positivity regarding the state of Expanded, following Toronto, which I never would’ve predicted three months ago. When was…
On Trevenant’s Torontonian Reign, the Future for Trees, the Case for Counterbox, and My Play (ZoroGarb) for Greensboro “As we know, the Toronto Top 8 was made up of these decks: 4 Trevenant BREAK 1 Night March 1 Archie’s Blastoise 1 Counterbox 1 Zoroark-GX/Garbodor It’s not hard to see that Trevenant BREAK dominated the event, despite its lack of a 1st or 2nd place trophy at the end of the weekend. At the end of Day 1, there were two Trevenant BREAK decks at the top of standings; both included a Pyroar FLF line! This was an unexpected tech that swung over the Pikarom matchup. Once the Pyroar was set up, it was already game over. Going first,…
PikaRom, A Bunch of Zoroarks (Garbodor, Golisopod, Golisopod/Lucario), Rayquaza/Ho-Oh, and Archie’s Blastoise for Toronto “Team Up is legal for Toronto, but if we look at the impact the set has had in Standard, there are only a handful of cards that have been impactful, and clearly the barrier of entry in Expanded is much higher. A card such as Jirachi TEU, for example, which has been a major player in Standard, may see some play in Expanded, but it won’t see nearly as much as it does in Standard. There is so much draw power already available that even if certain decks do choose to run a Jirachi engine, those same decks will likely…
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…
A clever combatant, this Pokémon battles using water balloons created with moisture secreted from its palms. (Drizzile)
The Collinsville Meta, the Future of Standard, Variance Got Me, and What’s “the Play” Now? “We saw a Blacephalon/Naganadel deck take the win this past weekend. Zapdos/Jirachi and Zoroark/Lycanroc made up a major portion of the meta, Stall is back (and causing me a major headache), and the top players brought a variety of decks to the event. What influenced these plays though? Blacephalon was, in retrospect, the obvious choice for the weekend, having a borderline free matchup against Zoroark, 50/50s against Pikarom and Zapdos, and a chance against the Stall decks. The Zapdos and Zoroark players were influenced by the results from OCIC. Zoroark was still a very strong play for the weekend, and…
Synthesizing Collinsville’s Results at the Dusk of SUM–TEU Standard (and an Electrical Stab at Expanded) “1st Zach Lesage won the tournament with his tried-and-true Blacephalon-GX/Naganadel deck that he has played at almost every tournament since its release. This came as a surprise to most players, including myself, as there was little reason to believe that the deck could compete with Zapdos. For an incredibly linear deck like Blowns, the two-shot nature of Zapdos/Jirachi should be overpowering due to its extra consistency and capability to attack immediately. However, Zach’s list contained a 1-1 Alolan Muk line, which is something I’ll touch on in a bit. 2nd Surrounding the success of Blacephalon-GX/Naganadel was Zoroark-GX/Lycanroc-GX/Lucario-GX. Basically, this deck…
The Oceania Meta, Post-Oceania Zoroark, Ultra Necrozma / Malamar (Updated), and What We Have Left “Based on what I heard, the Day 1 metagame was very similar to what we saw Day 2: a lot of Lightning decks—mixed between Pikachu & Zekrom-GX and Zapdos based—along with a heavy presence of Ultra Necrozma-GX/Malamar decks and Zoroark-GX as well. Decks like Blacephalon-GX and Psychic Malamar also showed up in lower numbers, but ultimately didn’t do as well as the others previously mentioned. The Top 8 was comprised of 3 Zapdos, 3 Pikachu & Zekrom-GX, and 2 Zoroark-GX decks. Malamar had three Top 16 showings, including a 9th place bubble. One of the three Zapdos decks included Buzzwole…
Oceania IC Results Discussion, Breakout Cards, and the Four Major Decks Heading into Collinsville “Let’s look at the results from the Masters Division of the event! Here are the Day 2 final standings (via Limitless, PokéStats, RK9 Labs): 1. Byron Isaiah Williams — Zapdos Jirachi 2. Stéphane Ivanoff — Zoroark Lycanroc Lucario 3. Kaiwen Cabbabe — Pikachu & Zekrom 4. Jose Marrero — Pikachu & Zekrom 5. Bert Wolters — Zapdos Jirachi 6. Lucas Henrique de Araujo Pereira — Pikachu & Zekrom 7. Henry Brand — Zoroark Lycanroc 8. Daniel Altavilla — Zapdos Jirachi 9. Christian Hasbani — Malamar Ultra Necrozma 10. Robin Schulz — Zapdos Jirachi 11. Azul Garcia Griego — Zapdos Jirachi 12. Rahul…
The Past (Dallas w/ ZoroToad), The Future (SUM–TEU Standard), and a Team Up Top 10 “This is the Seismitoad-EX/Zoroark-GX list that my entire group ended up playing for the event! Caleb ended up with a 2nd-place finish, and the group had great success overall, so I would say it was a very successful tournament! 1 Oranguru UPR: This is a card that was mentioned when removing stuff, but ended up being kept around, and I am super glad that is the case! Despite not playing against any mill decks or decks that featured Garbodor GRI, this Oranguru pulled its weight. It was crucial in my victory against Mega Gardevoir, and it made some big plays in…
It emits psychic power strong enough to cause headaches as a deterrent to the approach of others. (Hatterene)