15 results for: ZoroGarb
T4 @ Dallas w/ ZoroGarb, Other Good Expanded Decks, Idea Dump (Sword & Shield Edition), and an Early UPR–SSH Tier List “Leading up to Dallas, my group and I had tested several decks, all of which felt relatively mediocre in comparison to Turbo Dark, which left us with the question “Why aren’t we just playing Dark?” To tell it short, only one of us ended up on Turbo Dark. I can’t speak for the others, but the reason I didn’t end up playing it—despite it being a sheer powerhouse of a deck—was because I didn’t feel as if I had enough options to outplay my opponent when I was playing the deck. The deck felt too reliant on if you could…
The Latest on ZoroGarb, ADP Dark, and UltraGarb for Dallas “With that in mind, I have found myself putting in the most work with ZoroGarb, mostly because it feels familiar and very powerful. It combines a wide variety of things that are important in Expanded, such are Item abuse, Ability abuse, and overextension on the Bench usage, whilst having the amazing Trade Ability. Here is the latest draft of the list that I’ve been practicing with the most: The list is of course heavily based on Ian Robb’s winning list from Portland. However, it does feature new inclusions that are both great new cards but also personal preference choices. The…
Exploring Expanded Garbodor Variants: Zoroark-GX, Ultra Necrozma, and Rogue Giratina-EX/Welder “Zoroark-GX/Garbodor has been a staple of the Expanded format for as long as I can remember. Lists have remained incredibly similar over time due to the unchanging core of the deck: Brigette and Colress. These two Supporters define the engine and contribute to the deck’s low variability between games. Garbotoxin always counters an entire format, Riotous Beating is a good attack, and Trade glues the components together. As you’ll see, the list is quite similar to all those before it. To start my testing, I took Ian Robb’s list from Portland and made a few changes to account for the…
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…
A Shock Lock Disclaimer, ZoroGarb (Sky Field & Parallel City), ZoroToad, ToadGarb, and Misc. Other Expanded Thoughts on/for Richmond Regionals “Most people first associate my name with my beloved Stoutland deck, so I wanted to include a bit for the people who may have clicked just for that. Shock Lock is a very poor play in current Expanded. Part of what made the deck so consistent and powerful is that it could play no Pokémon Tool removal and simply concede to Garbodor decks. Now, any deck that plays Stealthy Hood makes themselves immune to Evoshock. Previously, Shock Lock took an auto-loss to Trevenant PHF (sans clunky Lysandre techs) because your only means of using Evoshock infinitely is with Lillipup BLW’s…
Apparently the Dreepy inside _________’s horns eagerly look forward to being launched out at Mach speeds. (Dragapult)
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…
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…
Be cautious of the ectoplasmic body surrounding its soul. You’ll become stiff as stone if you touch it. (Cursola)
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…
My Dallas Experience w/ Zoro/Garb, Final Notes on Expanded, and Team Up and Standard “To nobody’s surprise, Zoroark-GX decks made up a majority of the meta in Dallas. Zoroark-GX/Garbodor was the most popular deck, but Archie’s Blastoise was only behind by two people. Aside from the 88 and 86 playing these respective decks, there was a slew of other Zoroark-GX decks, a surge of Vespiquen, Rayquaza-GX, and other meta decks somewhat seen in the field. Fighting decks, Trevenant, and Drampa-GX/Garbodor were all relatively unpopular, only having about 20 players each. I was surprised to see that there weren’t more Fighting decks because of Zoroark’s last win. My theory is that most people were more…
ZoroGarb and Sylveon/Magnezone (in Fine Detail) for Dallas Regionals “I don’t think I can actually come up with a deck that has been so versatile in quite a bit of time. ZoroGarb quite literally has no matchup that it cannot win, and to my knowledge has a 50/50 or better against almost every deck in the format. I am certain that if I choose to play ZoroGarb, I can almost certainly walk away from Dallas with some amount of CP. However, my goal at this point is to secure a rather high finish—not just earn some CP—so I find myself wary of playing such a high-profile deck. There are…
One-Fish/Two-Fish, the Renegade Rancher, and Texas Ranger for Dallas Regionals “So will this new card cause a wave (pun intended) of influence and make Archie’s Blastoise immediately better and a more powerful archetype? I believe the answer is no. The card is good—don’t get me wrong—but it’s still not super easy to get out and the Archie’s issue was never “lack of access” to a powerful attacker. Wishiwashi-GX, Articuno ROS 17, Volcanion {*}, Kingdra-GX, and Keldeo-EX are already an impressive arsenal for the deck. Magikarp & Wailord-GX hits some nice numbers with the 5-Energy cost, namely 180 to OHKO most Basic EXs and GXs, and a Choice Band allows it…
Recapping a Collection of Tournaments with Zoroark-GX/Garbodor in Expanded “Why is this deck good? Well, it combines two amazing cards. I’ve already covered why Zoroark-GX is a strong card in Expanded; I need not dive further into it. Garbotoxin is a strong Ability in Expanded when combined with N, but also in the general nature of the successful decks. The more aggressive decks like Rayquaza-GX, Archie’s Blastoise, Buzzwole, and Blacephalon are vulnerable to either Trashalanche or Garbotoxin, making Garbodor a sweet sidekick in these matchups. Importantly, Trashlanche functions as a strong single prize attacker. This way, there’s a great way to punish the opponent for returning to even prizes…
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)