#darkrai-gx

[pokemon-cards-hourly]

[pokemon-card-of-the-day]

Pokemon Card of the Day #3076: Tyranitar-GX (Lost Thunder)

Tyranitar-GX was meant to punish things. All its attacks were simply about damage, and anything that it Knocked Out was gone from the game for good. The power here was good but not great considering that this was a Stage 2, though softening up the opponent's Bench was a nice way to set up for other hits. You'd probably have to build around this to make it worthwhile, but at least there were some good traits to work with.

250 HP was no joke. Tyranitar would be taking a hit in almost every case, and if managing to play it in the format just before the Tag Teams came out it wasn't that rare for it to survive 2 due to 120 being a common damage number. The Fighting Weakness was actually worse in that SUM-On format due to things like Buzzwole and Zygarde still being relevant, with the Weakness not mattering too much afterward. The Psychic Resistance was nice against Malamar decks that weren't leaning on Ultra Necrozma-GX or Marshadow-GX, and the later Mewtwo & Mew-GX or even Dragapult VMAX could be annoyed by the lower damage in certain spots. The Retreat Cost here was 3, so having switching cards would be a good idea if you could fit them.

Lost Out was a really nice Ability. If damage from an attack from Tyranitar-GX Knocked Out an opponent's Pokemon, that Pokemon and all cards attached to it were sent to the Lost Zone. That meant having the chance to get rid of an important Pokemon for good, as well as lowering the amount of Energy that deck had access to in a lot of games. Tyranitar-GX didn't tend to KO Pokemon in a single hit, so it was kept in check by that, but later in a game this Ability could really shine.

Dusty Ruckus was actually quite solid. 130 damage was a good amount for 2 Darkness and a Colorless Energy, though it did get outdone a bit once Tag Teams were released. It also did 30 damage to each of the opponent's Benched Basic Pokemon, which actually did better with those 3 Prize Pokemon around since it got those into 2-hit range for Dusty Ruckus. You could theoretically win a game in 3 turns like that, with the obvious note that you were needing to swarm Stage 2's and get Energy onto them all against some strong and often fast Basic Pokemon. Not an easy task, even if the attack itself did the job.

Lay the Smackdown GX was there when you really needed more power to get a KO. The same 2 Darkness and a Colorless Energy and the use of the GX attack for the game did 220 damage that ignored all effects on the opponent's Active Pokemon. This would take down a decent amount of things on its own, and the rest just needed some prior damage which Dusty Ruckus was pretty good at. If needing the last chunk of Prizes, this could be here.

Tyranitar-GX would have been really good if it was easier to get Energy onto it. It sadly wasn't on the best type to pull off these sorts of tricks, likely needing both Weavile-GX and Naganadel to have a chance. While the deck was functional, that combo tended to have more like with the likes of Mega Sableye & Tyranitar-GX or Umbreon & Darkrai-GX just because those had to set up a bit less. While a set up Tyranitar-GX deck was indeed scary, it was pretty inconsistent and saw little serious play.

[bizarropurugly]

some of my most valuable pokemon cards:

Mew V NM alternate art, approx 40 bucks

Dark Charizard holo, HP at worst, approx 60 bucks

Suicine holo LP, from the Aquapolis set, over 100 fucking bucks

Dark Houndoom MP, from the Team Rocket set, approx 40 bucks

Giovanni’s Persion HP, approx 10 bucks

Jolteon holo, MP? from Jungle set, approx 21 bucks

Dark Ampharos, MP? from Team Rocket set, approx 45 bucks

Mew, Damaged, from Souther Islands set, approx 15 bucks

Eevee holo, LP WOTC promo, approx 10 bucks

Wigglytuff holo, LP Jungle set, approx 15 bucks

Espeon GX, Secret SM base set, approx 30 bucks

Umbreon, MP? Neo Discovery set, approx 37 bucks

Darkrai Vstar alternate art, NM, Crown Zenith, approx 20 bucks

[agender-witchery]

A core issue with the Pokemon TCG, which I personally don't find to be too ruinous to my enjoyment but is a flaw nonetheless, is that ever since introducing Pokemon-ex cards (which are distinct from the later Pokemon-EX and Pokemon ex cards), the game has been in a never ending power escalation that simply can't be stopped without losing half a generation's worth of revenue. Maybe it could have been stopped somewhere in gen 4 or early gen 5, but once we got Pokemon-EX, the trajectory of the game was set in stone.

Big chonky basic Pokemon whose massive health pools offset the penalty for having one knocked out, massive attacks that make it so that your main way of dealing with Pokemon-EX was to have your own Pokemon-EX, and many, many effects centered specifically around Pokemon-EX cards. Stage 2 Pokemon were mostly missing from the meta because why play Alakazam when you can play bigger better Alakazam-EX that doesn't need to evolve?

Things would slow down mildly with Pokemon-GX by way of sometimes giving you a GX worth using that wasn't a basic Pokemon, and so we saw stuff like Lycanroc-GX get play and, hey, you had to evolve that! There was the occasional stage 2 card in the mix here like Metagross-GX and Gardevoir-GX, but the majority of usable GX cards were either basic or stage 1.

And then we got GX Tag Teams. I don't think we've ever really recovered from that. Bigger, chunkier basics than Pokemon-EX ever offered, with the same access to the obscenely powerful GX attacks, but offered 3 prize cards instead of 2. I think that really came to a head with Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX which would often only need 2 knockouts to close a game.

I dipped out of the game for a bit from here because it was pretty difficult to remain engaged with the TCG with an ongoing pandemic, but the Pokemon V cards from that time frame where I was disengaged with the game seem largely similar to the Pokemon-EX cards from earlier.

Now that I'm back in, the new type of card is Pokemon ex, which is Pokemon-ex but better and stronger. In a universe where TPCI eased up on power levels, these would be comparable to Pokemon-GX, although without the GX attacks and might have actually been a slowing down point. In this universe, where TPCI didn't ease up on power levels, they are more comparable to GX Tag Teams, but with only 2 prize cards given instead of 3. Sure, you gotta evolve em, but the fact that you can pull out a 310 HP Gardevoir ex that does 190 damage when its Gardevoir-ex counterpart had half the health and a quarter of the damage with the same drawbacks and limitations, this game is forced, by capital, to constantly inflate power levels just to keep people buying.

I enjoy the game. I just wish there was a way to play it that didn't involve drawing your entire deck in 3 turns and then eagerly waiting to see if a bigger and better card would come out next set.

But also I find it extremely funny that there's a limit of 4 of each card of a specific name you can have but due to the weirdness of naming conventions surrounding all these different types of cards, the only limit to how many Darkrai you can run in expanded dark box is whether or not an extra Darkrai will prevent you from drawing half your deck on turn 1.

[connorbarritos]

Tournament Report. Riley's Retro #8 (PRC-EV0) 1st/17

Hey y'all, yesterday I played in an online tournament hosted by one of my favorite twitch streamers, RileyWrenTCG, and ended up winning with Volcanion! I had a lot of fun in this tournament, and I want to talk about the deck and what lead me to play it. But first, we need to discuss the format. I will also provide links for cards and decks.

The Format (PRC-EVO)

This particular format took place after the 2016 World Championships, containing the sets Primal Clash and everything up to Evolutions (the last XY set). The most notable tournament using this format was the 2016 European International Championships where Yveltal/Garbodor ran through the competition, and the last tournament being Fortaleza Regionals in Brazil, Feb. 2017, where Darkrai Dragons took the win with Volcanion taking 3 out of the top 4 spots. Other decks that were prominent in this era are Vespiquen/Zebstrika, Mega Gardevoir STS, and Mega Mewtwo. Now, let's take a look at the deck that I played and the following matchups throughout the tournament.

Volcanion

I ended up playing Volcanion as a last minute decision more than anything. I was actually going to play a Mega Altaria deck, but after some playtesting I decided not to. I ended up going with something I never had the opportunity to play within the era this tournament was set in. Now, I do have experience playing Volcanion, it just came a bit later when Gardevoir GX was out and about. Anyways, Volcanion the deck is another one of these fast and aggressive decks that populate this format. Volcanion EX has an amazing ability in Steam Up, which allows you to discard a Fire energy from your hand so your BASIC Fire type Pokemon do 30 more damage. This ability stacks, which means you can use the ability per Volcanion EX you have in play. You can power Volcanion EX up easily with both Max Elixir, look at the top 6 cards in your deck and attack a basic energy you find to one of your benched basic Pokemon, and with baby Volcanion with the Power heater attack, choose two bench Pokémon and attach one Fire energy to both of those Pokémon. Eventually, you will have Volcanion EX dealing lots of damage while also having a hefty 180 HP. However, this list is not optimal. I'd personally cut two Float Stone to add two Fighting Fury Belt, which gives you 40 more HP AND lets you deal 10 more damage. I'd also cut Pokémon Catcher entirely and add a second Lysandre and three Escape Rope. Overall, the deck worked phenomenally regardless of what I think was missing as stated just earlier. I mean, I literally won the tournament with it. Anyways, time for matchups!

Matchups

R1: Mega Ray W. Should've lost this one, but my opponent threw away all of their Sky Fields, which lets them do more damage, and their Float Stones, so I literally used Lysandre to stall until I know I could take the win late game.

R2: Raikou/Electrode W. This matchup is tricky since they also played a Jolteon EX, but I was able to get rid of it early and just ko everything afterword.

R3: Turbo Dark W. They couldn't hit Max Elixirs or set up any relevant attackers, so it just a landslide victory.

R4: Yveltal/Garb ID. We decided to intentionally draw so we could guarantee a top 4 berth for the both of us since we were both 3-0 going into this round. We did not play and took a needed break.

Top 4: Vespiquen/Zebstrika LWW. This was definitely the toughest matchup of the night. Without Fighting Fury Belt, I didn't have the health to keep the bees from one-shotting everything. It was very apperent in game 1. Games 2 and 3, however, my opponent couldn't keep up with the prize trade; whether it be them not being able to find the pieces to keep up, or me being able to knock out a Shaymin EX to further my lead. On to finals.

Finals: Raikou/Electrode LWW. Game one I started Hoopa EX and couldn't really find ways to knock anything out, so I scooped it up early and went to game 2. During game 2, I was able to knock out Jolteon EX by flipping heads on Pokemon Catcher twice in a row, the first one taking it out of the active to reset its effect, and the second one to bring it back to the active. They couldn't recover after that, so on to game 3! In the last game of the series, I start with a rough Sycamore discarding 3 out my 4 Max Elixir, but I find a Volcanion and an energy to start building up a Volcanion EX. Towards the end of the game, my opponent made the mistake to break their Jolteon EX lock they had going, while I had ZERO cards in hand, to use Shaymin EX's Sky Return attack to put itself back into the hand so I wouldn't be able to Lysandre it and knock it out. During my turn I top decked a VS Seeker, which allowed me to grab a supporter card from my discard pile and put it into my hand. I, of course, grabbed Sycamore to draw 7 seven cards and found a Pokémon Catcher. On their turn they promoted Raikou instead of Jolteon EX after Sky Return, I'm assuming to prevent Jolteon EX from getting knocked out. All I needed to do was to flip heads on Pokemon Catcher to win. I shook the card in game, as a way to find luck, and played the Catcher. And to my surprise, I flipped heads! I immediatly brought up Jolteon EX, used Volcanion EX's Steam Up ability, and took the knock out to go to one last prize card! My opponent then just passed the turn back to me, and it was all over--I had won.

After the tournament was over, I was so happy. I jumped from my desk chair and did a silent pop-off in my room. Even though it was a small event compared to others, I'm still really proud of myself! I had an amazing time playing, and I'm really excited for the next Riley's Retro event! Also, thank y'all for reading. If you want to see me in action from this tournament, my games were streamed on Riley's twitch channel here (please check her out she's cool). Huge shout out to Alex Wilson for providing the list I used tonight from PTCG Legends, his website has a ton of decks from throughout the ages of Pokémon TCG, even with streams of past World Championships. Please check it out! You can play in tournaments like the one I played in HERE on PlayLimitless, a website the hosts online Pokémon TCG, Pokémon VGC, and Digimon TCG tournaments every day of the week!

Thank y'all so much for reading,

-Connor B.

[luxuryandsports1]

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[hipposfashion]

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[tcgwizard]

[gatr-gatr]

Which design is better?

Personally, I like the vibrant colors for the espeon&deoxys GX a bit better.

[ladyowltonspokemon]

[pokemon-cards-hourly]

[pokemon-card-of-the-day]

Pokemon Card of the Day #3166: Hoopa-GX (Team Up)

Hoopa-GX was a generally hard-hitting Darkness-type, even if one that couldn't attack multiple turns in a row. Its main thing over other Pokemon was that it had a GX attack that could deal some serious damage to Benched Pokemon-GX, which was going to be useful rather often in a format filled with those. There was a lot of competition for the GX attack in decks it would be used in, with the strong but limited normal attack needing to be enough to carry it in spots where something else wanted to use theirs instead.

190 HP was solid for a Basic Pokemon-GX. It was actually high enough to force Pikachu & Zekrom-GX to use a second Electropower to get a clean KO here, meaning that surviving a hit would happen reasonably often. The Fighting Weakness was rarely going to matter at this point in the game, and it wasn't until the very late TEU-On inclusion of Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX that it became a big deal again. Hoopa-GX wasn't nearly as useful in that format anyway. The Psychic Resistance could occasionally change a number against a Mewtwo & Mew-GX deck, though the impact was generally limited. The Retreat Cost here was 3, meaning that switching cards of some sort were basically required here. Hoopa-GX was not something that could attack every turn.

Rogue Ring needed a Darkness Energy and let you search your deck for up to 2 cards to put into your hand. This could help early with setting up. The problem was that this did no damage, and using a Pokemon-GX to just help set up while also being Active was quite the risk. Any hand disruption messed it up too. If you did avoid the negatives, it could also be a big help, so despite not being ideal you were probably going to want to keep the existence of this in mind if you were using Hoopa-GX.

Dark Strike was strong, at 160 damage for 3 Darkness Energy. This was similar to some of the bigger attacks at the time, but with one catch: Hoopa-GX couldn't use Dark Strike again during your next turn. This provided solid damage as long as you could switch to something else to take over the hitting right afterward. This was more useful if you had Weavile-GX to move Energy around to whatever you picked.

Devilish Hands GX also needed 3 Darkness Energy. The Darkness decks you'd use Hoopa-GX in also had other GX attacks, so you had to be sure this one was worth it before using. The effect was quite impressive here: You got to choose a Pokemon-EX or Pokemon-GX in play 6 times, and could choose the same one more than once. Each choice did 30 damage to that Pokemon, and Weakness and Resistance were ignored. You could spread a lot of damage or target a Benched Pokemon easily in this way. That Dedenne-GX on the Bench was just a target for this, and anything that gave up multiple Prizes and was weakened would not be safe. This could be a game-changing sort of attack if timed well.

Hoopa-GX did need Energy support to work, as any deck it was used in needed to power it up but also another attacker as well. This tended to limit the card to being used as a piece in Weavile-GX decks, which could move Darkness Energy around efficiently. Hoopa-GX even had a nice GX attack to work with, with the big downside being that you couldn't use the ones from the likes of Greninja & Zoroark-GX, Umbreon & Darkrai-GX, or Mega Sableye & Tyranitar-GX. This was something to consider for those Dark toolboxes, but was hard to fit in elsewhere.

[f-laaffy]

[elorasaurus-gaming]

Haven't bought pokemon cards in years.. since Black and white first came out.

Spotted a pretty Bulbasaur tin in work today which had 2 booster packs in and had to pick it up. Mostly because the tin itself had bulbasaur and is small enough for storing trinkets.

My luck was good when one of my faves/this handsome card appeared in the second pack ❤

[patchamppokemon]

Hey Guys! I actually filmed this video on New Years Eve before I went out and got pretty drunk. Anyway, I must have drank a lot because until now I forgot I even made it! Anyway, prepare for some spicy pulls!