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undauntedtcg · 4 years

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BW-EVO Tourney w/ Turbo Dark

A couple weeks ago, I participated in a special format tournament on the PokeStats discord server, and did...fine, I guess? The format had never been played with the new 1st turn rules before and I didn’t play very often near the end of the XY era so I made a super consistent Turbo Dark list, as everyone who doesn’t know what to play does, and rolled with it. So, before I get into anything else, the list!

Pokemon - 10 3 Darkrai EX BKP 1 Darkrai EX DEX 2 Yveltal STS 3 Shaymin EX 1 Hoopa EX

Trainers - 38 3 Professor Juniper 2 N 2 Lysandre 1 Hex Maniac 1 Ghetsis

4 Ultra Ball 4 Trainers' Mail 4 Max Elixir 4 Dark Patch 4 VS Seeker 2 Battle Compressor 2 Fighting Fury Belt 1 Tool Scrapper

3 Sky Field

Energy - 12 12 Darkness Energy

This list was super good and, as advertised, very consistent. However, it was built with the wrong decks in mind. Not once did I use Ghetsis to any meaningful effect. Initially, Ghetsis was included to beat Sableye/Garbodor. I think, in retrospect, I would’ve cut the Ghetsis in favor of Pokemon Center Lady for Accelgor.

I won’t go over each card because there honestly isn’t much to talk about, so let’s get into our matchups!

Round 1 vs Landorus/Regirock/Max Potion LWW This was a really weird deck. My opponent said that it was built specifically to beat Turbo Dark. It does not. They lacked any form of energy acceleration so we were just able to outpace them and take one-shots before they could do anything relevant. The other issue with my opponents deck choice is that I later learned that I was the only Turbo Dark player in the event. All things considered, he got pretty lucky! Hitting his one “Auto-win” round one. Just kinda...forgot the “win” part. Oops.

Round 2 vs Accelgor LL We have 0 outs to breaking the paralysis lock. I forgot this deck was a thing. List should’ve been playing Escape Rope + Pokemon Center Lady to turn it back in our favor. But alas, I am dumb and lost very easily.

Round 3 vs Seismitoad EX WLW (I think?) I know this isn’t the prevailing opinion, but it was so fun to play around item lock again! Going absolutely mad with items on the first turn is so much fun and I totally got to show how consistent this deck can be. Yveltal STS was the best card in this matchup with Dark Patch being inactive most of the games, we were able to just ramp for a few turns and start killing toads. Probably my 2nd best performance this tournament.

Round 4 vs Greninja BREAK LWL We drew like a theme deck this round! As it turns out, it is very easy to beat Turbo Dark if you can just snipe Shaymin EX off the bench and set up 3-hit KOs on Darkrai EX. I think we’d be favored normally here, I got to use the Hex Maniac chain to full effect in game 2 and it was glorious.

Round 5 vs Primal Groudon WLW I expected this matchup to be way worse than it actually was. They require 4 entire attachments to attack and we can just start swinging from turn 1 so...you just go zoom and run them over! A gameplan I was able to successfully adhere to. Super interesting games though, really challenges your understanding of tempo and pressure, something Pokemon players don’t often have to think about.

Overall, we finished 3-2 and bubbled out of cut at 10th place. I’m pretty content with my performance in this event! I played as well as I could considering there was no real way to test or prepare and I’m happy with my result. You can find the full results of the tournament here.

I can’t wait to share my experience with other old format tournaments further down the road! I played in a 2018 tournament, a 2014 tournament and just registered for a 2016 and 2017 tournament so I’ll have plenty to document here for you.

Thanks for reading!

#pokemontcg #Darkrai #tournament report

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undauntedtcg · 4 years

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Old Format Tourneys/More to Come??

What’s up tumblr? Long time no see. It’s been a fairly long period of creative resistance as far as these posts go. Nothing in Standard or Expanded really seemed interesting enough to warrant a dedicated post and then nothing happened for a while. Over the course of quarantine, I’ve been playing in a lot of tournaments online. Mostly standard, but I’m compiling a lot of data from those tournaments and will have more on that hopefully next Monday (18/05) after the Limitless Qualifier #3/Sunday Open #5 have concluded and I have a large number of tournament results to share with you all! This week, we’ll have a look at the three old format tournaments I’ve played in Quarantine. The first report should be on Tuesday with a BW-EVO tournament hosted by PTCG stats.

#pokemon #pokemontcg

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undauntedtcg · 5 years

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ZoroGarb Propaganda (Updated List Included)

Going into Portland, which is happening tomorrow, I think ZoroGarb (My deck from Richmond) is the play.

Given the awful performance I had with it at Richmond, I would understand those who are skeptical. However, I think a list with double Klefki STS for the EggRow matchup can beat pretty much the whole meta. With Archie’s being completely gone from the format after their poor showing in Richmond, and BuzzGarb being forced out for its poor matchup against EggRow, ZoroGarb has great chances against the rest of the decks we saw last weekend!

That is all, just spreading my propaganda before the tournament so I can have my predictions validated as I won’t be competing.

New List!

Pokemon: 26 4 Zoroark GX 4 Zorua 2 Garbodor GRI 1 Garbodor BKP 2 Trubbish 1 Ditto* 2 Klefki 2 Exeggcute 2 Tapu Lele GX 1 Shaymin EX 1 Dedenne GX 1 Sudowoodo 1 Oricorio 1 Wobbuffet

Trainers: 28 2 Colress 1 N 1 Professor Juniper 1 Guzma 1 Brigette

4 Ultra Ball 4 VS Seeker 2 Cherish Ball 2 Field Blower 2 Float Stone 1 Choice Band 1 Battle Compressor 1 Rescue Stretcher 1 Super Rod 1 Dowsing Machine

3 Sky Field

Energy: 6 2 Psychic 4 Double Colorless

I will note, this list only really works based on the assumption that the decks that did poorly in Richmond continue to do poorly now that the decks that beat them are more popular. Archie’s, Trev/BuzzGarb with Let Loose + Plant, ZoroToad are all STILL bad matchups. However, our matchups against the decks in Richmond’s Top 8 like EggRow, ZoroControl, TurboDark, and Gardeon are just a little better. (But you might wanna dodge Gardeon just to be safe) Compressor decks like Night March and Vespiquen were also really popular in Richmond and are probably still really good and this deck can pretty much just beat them! So go get ‘em in Portland.

Aside from all this Expanded stuff, I’m going to be running a Malamar list through some locals leading up to LAIC and there will probably be some testing results and which deck I think is the best for the tournament (Let’s be honest it’s already Malamar)

Thanks for reading!

#PTCG #Pokemon #Regionals #Deck List

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undauntedtcg · 5 years

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My Run at Richmond Regionals/Day 2 Cup Report

I played Zoroark Garbodor in Richmond last weekend, and things were...weird. So all in all, just another day of Expanded. I went 3-4-2 day one, a worse day than Greensboro last season, however, I do believe that I improved in many ways despite a worse finish (more on that later). Let’s have a look at what went wrong!

R1 vs. Archie’s Night March LWT

This was such a cool deck! They used Archie’s Ace in the Hole with Swampert to give them more draw to improve control matchups. In game 1, I played a Karen to disrupt his damage output and he responded with double compressor, power draw and sycamore to build right back up on a one-shot and took the game fairly easily. Game 2 was a different story, Karen actually stuck and I just took my 6 prizes without any difficulty, which is really the only way to win this matchup. We got to game 3, he went first, played power plant, let loose’d me into an unplayable hand, I got basics down and then time was called. Super lucky to have tied that one, given the hand I got in that third game.

R2 vs. Archiestoise LL

This is the most polarized matchup ZoroGarb has. If they stumble at all turn 1, we can just win. If they get a cross division off, we just lose. Neither of those things happened here though! I whiffed energy the entire round and by the time I was hitting energy, it didn’t matter as the board state was too far gone.

R3 vs. MewGardy LWW

MewGardy is just a really bad deck. I prized double trubbish game one and couldn’t get there with Zoroarks alone, but as soon as I had access to all my pokemon in the second two games it was pretty easy. This would’ve been a tie had my opponent not scooped on turn 2 of time, seeing that his board was completely lost. S/o to him for being friendly!

R4 vs. ZoroToad LL

This. Matchup. Sucks. I was item locked the entierty of both games, with sudo down and no way to take prizes. Probably just an autoloss. In game 1, I saw the toad and assumed it was a control variant, which we can beat. But when they’re prize racing with LaserBank and Quaking Punch, our options are limited. ZoroToad doesn’t have many favorable matchups in this format, I would even go so far as to say that it’s just bad. But it definitely beats ZoroGarb most of the time.

R5 vs. MewGardy WW

My opponent had a rough start both games and by the time he was attacking, trashalanche was one-shotting everything. Round was over in a little under 20 minutes.

R6 vs. Archiestoise WW

The matchup went the other way this time. My opponent had decent turn ones both games but my deck actually functioned properly and Cross Division never happened. Great games with a super friendly opponent, though.

R7 vs. Trev LL

This used to be a free matchup last season. Now, however, they play 4 Power Plant. It’s more like 50/50 now, but if they brick you off of Let Loose + Plant there’s just nothing you can do. I got a board set up but never got to a point where I could attack and whiffed evolutions all both games. Nothing I think I could’ve done differently, but it all felt so bad. This was the round that took us out of contention for day 2.

R8 vs. Durant WLT

With Oranguru, this matchup is pretty favored. Took game one through Resource Management and KOing Ants. Game 2 I wasn’t able to develop to a point where I could be aggressive enough to take out ants often. Eventually we decked out after some Handiwork double heads. Time was called in game three, I had 2 prizes left by the end. Neither of us wanted to tie but both of us were trying to hit points, we talked with a judge about how else we could resolve it. Going by prizes isn’t really fair when it’s a mill strategy so we just agreed to draw. Thinking about it, I wonder if there is a mathematical way to equate cards left in deck to prize cards and use that to decide. Either way, this took us out of contention for points.

R9 vs. Archiestoise WLL

This is the only round I really felt like I was playing sub-optimally. I was tired, I couldn’t get anything no matter what happened this round, I just wanted to leave. I was basically brain dead and on autopilot the whole way through. I don’t even remember how I got the first game, it just sorta happened. He got Cross Division off Games 2 and 3 and there was just nothing happening for me. Oh well.

Looking back through all of the rounds I would do a few things differently.

I would’ve cut the girafarig. It’s good, but I never hit the matchups it’s good in. Cobalion GX would’ve been way more helpful to stop cross division.

In a more broad sense though, I think I should’ve just played Zoroark Control. I’m comfortable enough with the deck, the only reason I didn’t play it was that I didn’t think I could play it perfectly for 9 rounds. In retrospect, I think I still would’ve had better chances with it than what I played.

On the positive side, I played much better than I did in Greensboro. I remember making small mistakes and throwing matches last time. Here, I think my play improved, but everything else got worse. My matchups were horrendous, I drew poorly off of Let Loose + Plant. A lot went wrong.

I can place an amount of blame on my preparation, for sure. I think the list could’ve been slightly better, and that’s definitely my fault. But at the same time, my list was geared to beat the decks I was expecting, and I didn’t come across as many of those as I would’ve liked.

After that pretty awful day 1, I played in the League Cup on day 2 with a different version of the deck. Playing cards like Bodybuilding Dumbbells and a heavier Parallel city count. I no longer have the exact list, but you aren’t missing much. Probably a little worse than what I played in the main event. But we’ll have a look at those rounds too, just for fun.

R1 vs. TurboDark W

I played against a player that attends tournaments in my area, which was rather nice. This was the first and only time I played against Dark the whole weekend and it was one of the most hyped decks going into the tournament. With Parallel and Sudowoodo, the matchup is pretty much just free.Keep control of their board and trashalanche until they lose.

R2 vs. Pikarom L

Half-bricked at the start of this game, had to bench more Lele and Dedenne than I would’ve liked. Game lasted a total of three turns, and two attacks. Full Blitz, Tag Bolt GG.

R3 vs. ZoroGarb T

This round didn’t go too well. He played cards that I wasn’t expecting, namely Acerola and Professor Kukui. We both kept Sudowoodo down the entire game. Trading two shots with Acerola inbetween for 30 minutes, then I used Tapu Cure GX to heal all the damage off my board in turn 2 of time and that was it.

R4 vs. Archiestoise W

My opponent missed Archie’s turn 1, 2 and 3. I don’t really have anything else to say here.

R5 vs. Archiestoise L

We both had horrible starts, but Cross Division made mine way worse. It was a close game in all honesty, but he got rid of all our Trubbish and we just couldn’t do anything from there.

R6 vs. Green’s Greninja BREAK L

Oh dear. This was horrid. No Trade, they limited their items too well for us to one shot anything. Really missed having Sky Field in this one.

R7 vs. Keldeo GX/Hoopa W

They played 0 outs to Garbotoxin, Garb just won the game outright.

I played 16 rounds of Zoroark Garbodor in it’s various forms this weekend! The deck is pretty busted, but the deck just can’t beat a lot of things. Let Loose + Power Plant can make any otherwise good matchup unfavored, we can lose to a lot of very specific random stuff.

Going forward, I think the deck actually gets better! The matchup against the 1st place EggRow deck isn’t too bad with double Klefki and some more hand disruption. For Portland, I would definitely be giving this deck a look! I will leave you all with a warning, however. If you want to play this deck, test it thoroughly. Know each matchup, know how the deck tends to run, always have a plan. The deck has a lot of options and isn’t for someone who wants to just do the same thing every game. For that, I’ll refer you to Turbo Dark.

I’m disappointed in myself for my poor performance and I’m very unhappy with how the tournament went for me. I understand that not everything that happened was in my control, and I’m very happy with how I played for most of the weekend, so I hesitate to call the weekend a complete failure. But I definitely have much to improve on and will be giving my all to the game from now leading up to whatever regionals I’ll be attending next.

Thanks for reading!

#Play! Pokemon #Pokemon #ptcg #Tournament Report

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undauntedtcg · 5 years

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On the Topic of Regional Preparation

Sorry for the uh...Extended break, we’ll call it. Testing for Richmond has been a task, and while I wanted to share more decks with you all, my testing focused in one one very quickly. However, I’ll try and do something with the results of this tournament in the week leading up to Portland, which I won’t be attending, but will have a lot of fun testing for and spectating.

My decklist, with card by card explanations, some matchup information and general advice will be out very soon, but before all of that, I think it’s worth looking at how one goes about getting ready for a regional. As someone who has attended a grand total of one, I feel qualified enough to share a little advice.

First, deck choice. The hardest part of any tournament, in my mind.

If you’re a newer or less experienced player, the biggest thing is to play a good deck. That seems unhelpful, right? But we should define good. When I say “good,” I typically mean tier one. I know rogue decks are always tempting! They are “geared to beat the meta” and “just can’t lose, in theory.” But the only people likely to find success with some off the wall nonsense is a top player that has practiced each of the deck’s matchups ad nauseum and refined the list to be incredibly consistent. If you aren’t willing to do that, pick up something powerful, consistent and easy to play. For the upcoming expanded events in Richmond and Portland, I’d recommend Pikarom or Darkbox, for instance. Your chances of making day 2 with a consistent deck that you aren’t likely to make too many mistakes with is much higher than some binderdrop of cards that work “in theory.”

No matter what deck you play, however, make sure that you’ve practiced with it thoroughly. TCGO is not known for the quality of players or decks, don’t test there exclusively. But, for practicing sequencing and getting a feel for how the deck runs, I’d say it’s a pretty good tool. Along with that, try and find people that can test specific matchups with you. It is preferable to have a general sense of your game-plan going into each matchup you’ll see at the regional.

Second, take care of yourself. Please.

Regionals are not exactly easy. Playing nine 50-minute rounds in a day can be exhausting. Sleep plenty before the event and make sure you’re eating and staying hydrated throughout the day, not only for your physical health, but to keep your mind functioning at its best. If you’re dehydrated, hungry and tired, I doubt you’ll be finding any success.

Third, don’t be intimidated.

You are going to see a lot of top players at any regional you attend. You might even play against a couple. Try to keep calm. Are they good? Yes, but it is impossible to play a TCG like Pokemon or Magic perfectly. Think through each of your decisions and play as optimally as you know how. If you do that, I’m willing to bet you’ll be fine. The biggest difference between a high and low level player is the ability to see ahead in the game. Consider each play’s effect not only on the current game-state, but on the game as a whole.

The players at the top are still human. Just interact with them as such. Except Christopher Schemanske, he’s a robot I’m pretty sure.

Last, and most importantly, have fun!

Regionals and Internationals are some of the most fun you can have playing Pokemon. Personally, I love playing out 9 rounds in one day. In locals and cups, I feel like I’m just getting warmed up by the time the last round is over. Here, however, you’re playing pretty much all day. It’s amazing!

#Pokemon #PTCG #Regionals #Play! Pokemon

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undauntedtcg · 5 years

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My Favorite Deck of All Time: ZoroPod

Before I begin, I apologize for the amount of time this post took. I hope the content makes up for the deviation from my normal schedule.

I was playing some 2017-2018 format games on TCG ONE with my ZoroPod and I realized a few things. The first? This is still my favorite deck. The second? I’ve played it in both standard formats since the deck’s creation.

So start off, I have to rewind things a bit! Welcome back to 2017.

Gardevoir just won the world championships and rightfully so, it was the most powerful card ever printed at the time. (230 HP after a rare candy...good times) A couple regionals passed by and stories began to emerge about something terrifying: The “Optimal” Gardevoir list. It was basically a two shot deck that, if it got bored, could ramp up to 210 damage without breaking a sweat. If it weren’t a stage two deck, it would’ve been unbeatable.

A couple funny little sets came out, Shining Legends and Crimson Invasion. The cards were...divisive to say the least. Zoroark GX was at the forefront of these discussions. Most people just thought it was a worse Octillery that gave up two prizes, others thought it was a fantasatic secondary attacker. Worthy of a 2-2 line at most. Around this time, I had just picked up Ninetales GX/Zoroark, liking the synergy between Trade and Aqua Patch. Others picked up Lycanroc GX, Decidueye GX and Golisopod GX. But never with more than a 2-2 Zoroark line. )You can check out my favorite example of the community having it all backwards here: Pablo Meza’s ZoroPod) Then, the Vikings came.

Tord Reklev and a great many European players came to the European International Championships playing a list that revolutionized the game for years to come. The first true Zoroark deck was born, as was the first ZoroPod list I’d ever pick up.

The List

Pokemon (20) 4 Zoroark GX 4 Zorua 1 Zoroark 3 Wimpod 2 Golisopod GX 1 Tapu Koko 1 Mewtwo 1 Mr. Mime 3 Tapu Lele GX

Trainers (33) 4 N 4 Guzma 3 Brigette 3 Acerola 2 Professor Sycamore 1 Mallow

4 Puzzle of Time 4 Ultra Ball 4 Field Blower 2 Enhanced Hammer 2 Choice Band

Energy (7) 3 Grass Energy 4 Double Colorless Energy

The first thing you’ll notice is that there are far more than two Zoroarks. Actually, there are five. But that’s not the only thing about Tord’s list that was revolutionary.

Puzzle of time hadn’t been seen in a while, but it was perfect for Zoroark. You draw so many cards that you’re nearly guaranteed to be able to find the puzzles when you need them, and you can reuse effects like Acerola up to 7 times in a game! This truly is the two shot deck of the century.

Many people still liked Drampa Garb going into EUIC. For obvious reasons, Zoroark decks are heavily ability reliant. So why not just play four blower and four puzzle to make sure they can’t turn off your abilities? As it turns out, you really don’t need 4 field blower to beat Garbodor, as your Guzmas can do a lot of that work instead. But I’d take overkill to under-preparation any day.

Lastly, Brigette was only a 1-2-of in most evolution decks at the time. However, with Zoroark’s trade to get rid of the extra ones, 3 copies doesn’t clog up the deck and it makes hitting it turn one way more likely. Most games, if you got turn one Brigette, you won. If you missed it, things didn’t go too well.

After EUIC, people were very afraid of ZoroPod. It seemed pretty much unbeatable. Tord Reklev had completely broken the Pokemon TCG.

But what about Gardevoir? The list was optimal! Broken even! Well, it was good against the old decks. But playing a stage 2 deck means that more often than not, you collapse after a Zoroark spends three turns picking off Ralts while you struggle to draw rare candy.

Fast forward to Leipzig regionals, just a while after EUIC and people had found the counter: Mill. Turns out, Quad Sylveon autowins Zoroark match-ups when you only play seven energy and four Puzzle of time.

The rise of mill gave Tord the idea of a new deck using his Zoroark engine: Zoroark Gardevoir. He won his third international championship in a row with that deck, but we only care about ZoroPod today, so we have to skip ahead to after Ultra Prism became legal. To Prague we go!

Tord won the Prague SPE with ZoroPod, but the list changed significantly.

The New List

Pokemon (19) 4 Zoroark GX 4 Zorua 3 Wimpod 2 Golisopod GX 1 Tapu Koko 1 Mew EX 1 Oranguru 3 Tapu Lele GX

Trainers (34) 4 Guzma 3 N 3 Brigette 2 Acerola 2 Cynthia 1 Mallow

4 Puzzle of Time 4 Ultra Ball 2 Field Blower 2 Evosoda 1 Enhanced Hammer 1 Max Potion 2 Choice Band 1 Float Stone

2 Parallel City

Energy (7) 3 Grass Energy 4 Double Colorless Energy

Ultra Prism gifted us with a couple cards that helped ZoroPod a ton.

Remember how Mill was this deck’s worst matchup? Not anymore. Resource management can put back puzzles, energy, really anything you need...infinitely. Now, you decked Sylveon out instead of the other way around. The card was also pretty insane in the mirror match, letting you get more value out of your cards than your opponent.

Cynthia proved to be far better than Professor Sycamore in Zoroark decks. You can get a new hand without discarding cards or refreshing your opponent’s hand.

Aside from new cards, there are other additions to the list to help deal with a Zoroark heavy metagame, or just improve consistency.

On the added consistency side of things, Evosoda is such an obvious inclusion to the deck. It’s like playing extra copies of your stage ones, and, unlike Ultra Ball, you didn’t have to discard cards to get to those evolutions.

Don’t get me wrong, Acerola is still the best healing card in the deck. But it is a supporter and you sometimes find yourself needing to heal and get another supporter effect. Max potion let’s you do exactly that.

The last new addition is Parallel City! For some reason unknown to myself, after winning EUIC and OCIC, Zoroark decks were getting pretty popular. With Parallel City, you could limit the damage output of all those other peasants playing the exact same archetype as you. That’ll show ‘em. The card could also be used to clear inconveniences like Tapu Lele GX off of your bench to deny prizes.

ZoroPod continued, barely changing for months to come, until we get to the final list from this format, Brian Miller’s World’s Top 8 deck.

The ultimate ZoroPod list!

Pokemon (18) 4 Zoroark GX 4 Zorua 3 Wimpod 2 Golisopod GX 1 Mew EX 1 Oranguru 3 Tapu Lele GX

Trainers (34) 4 Brigette 3 Guzma 3 N 1 Acerola 1 Cynthia 1 Professor Sycamore

4 Puzzle of Time 4 Ultra Ball 3 Field Blower 3 Evosoda 1 Enhanced Hammer 1 Max Potion 1 Counter Catcher 1 Choice Band 2 Float Stone

3 Parallel City

Energy (7) 3 Grass Energy 4 Double Colorless Energy

Most of what’s different about this list is what it leaves out.

No new additions to the Standard Format made it into this list. In fact, there’s only one new card!

Somewhere between the Prague SPE and NAIC, Counter Catcher became a standard inclusion. With all the hyper-aggressive decks in the format, ZoroPod fell behind in prize cards all the time. Instead of matching that aggression, which this deck cannot do, it just takes advantage of being behind. You could N your opponent low and play a pre-errata Pokemon Catcher to deal with one of their major threats. Or more commonly, kill their draw support Pokemon.

Now, one last card that didn’t make it into any of these three lists but did become a standard somewhere in between. An honorable mention, if you will.

Delinquent allowed for so many insane plays. Counter catcher to kill their draw support Pokemon, Parallel city to force them to discard a couple other benched Pokemon, and then you simply delete the opponent’s hand. Seems pretty balanced, right? A weird T1 Delinquent Zoroark deck actually got the card banned in expanded, so take that information however you may.

And then rotation hit.

Zoroark lost pretty much every card that made the deck good in the previous format. Brigette, Puzzle of Time, Evosoda and Parallel City no name a few.

Basically, everything that drew me to the archetype was gone. But the first cup of the season was upon me, so we ran it.

The List

Pokemon (21) 4 Zoroark GX 4 Zorua 4 Wimpod 2 Golisopod GX 2 Tapu Koko 1 Deoxys 1 Dedenne 1 Oranguru 3 Tapu Lele GX

Trainers (32) 4 Lillie 4 Guzma 2 Professor Kukui 2 Acerola 1 Judge 1 Cynthia

4 Ultra Ball 4 Nest Ball 3 Choice Band 2 Enhanced Hammer 1 Rescue Stretcher 1 Pal Pad

2 Devoured Field

Energy (7) 3 Grass Energy 4 Double Colorless Energy

This deck, to put it gently, is garbage. With no consistent way to find evolutions and no guarantee of a good set up, there is almost no reason to play this deck if you weren’t already a Zoroark player from the previous season. But, let’s have a look at some of the things that changed.

Some people that, arguably, had worse ideas than the Zoroark players tried to make BuzzRoc work in the new format. While imperfect, Deoxys established a favorable prize trade. Dedenne can one-shot the new top tier threat, Rayquaza GX with a choice band, DCE and Tapu Koko on the bench. The deck’s match-up spread would just be terrible without this.

Now that Brigette is gone, we have two supporter options for the first turn of the game: Lillie or Pokemon Fan Club? Fan Club only grabs two basics. Yes, that’s only one less than Brigette, but it’s a huge difference. Nest Ball in combination with Lillie was usually enough to get basics down. But that ended up not being the deck’s main problem anyway.

You’ll notice that Ultra Ball is the deck’s only method of finding its evolutions. Well, as it turns out, in Bo1 cups, you can get screwed over by that very easily. Every one of my losses in the cup were not because I couldn’t find my basics, but rather because on the second turn the Zoroark’s didn’t show up.

I loved all of the previous year’s Zoroark decks, so I’ll be the first to admit that this hurt. Between that and the dominance of Shrine of Punishment, I was fairly disillusioned with the game after that tournament. I attended a couple tournaments after this, most notably getting 2nd at an ARG State Championships with ZoroGarb, but for the most part I stopped playing for a full Quarter.

I only played ZoroPod one more time in the Standard format, sometime after Team Up was released.

The List

Pokemon (20) 4 Zoroark GX 4 Zorua 3 Wimpod 2 Golisopod GX 1 Ditto* 2 Tapu Koko 1 Oranguru 3 Tapu Lele GX

Trainers (33) 4 Professor Elm's Lecture 4 Guzma 4 Cynthia 2 Acerola 1 Judge

4 Ultra Ball 4 Pokemon Communication 2 Enhanced Hammer 2 Choice Band 1 Max Potion 1 Rescue Stretcher 1 Pal Pad

3 Devoured Field

Energy (7) 3 Grass Energy 4 Double Colorless Energy

Lost thunder gave us a couple cards to help our consistency. Sadly, a once powerful deck had almost been entirely power creep’d out of the format. I had a couple decent results with this list in spite of that though, so let’s take a look at what changed.

Elm’s lecture almost replaces Brigette in this deck. Wimpod has 70 hp, rendering it unsearchable with this card. However, Ditto* nearly filled the void. The deck regained much of it’s consistency with this card and I’m thankful for that.

Pokemon Communication had amazing synergy with Elm’s lecture. The number of outs you had to turn one Elm and turn 2 Zoroark increased a lot. This card is what made Zoroark playable again, change my mind.

Apart from that, the list hasn’t really changed, Just some engine adjustments.

Now, the only thing we haven’t covered is ZoroPod in the Expanded format. On average, I attend one expanded tournament per season, and I didn’t play ZoroPod at any of them. However, I can direct you to Dean Nezam’s 1st place list from Dallas Regionals.

So that’s my history with the deck! I know it sounds silly, but I’ve become very attached to this deck. I attribute the majority of my success and my entrance to the competitive scene to this deck.

The thing that I loved most was ZoroPod’s incredible consistency. At it’s best in 2017, it just felt like the deck let you play Pokemon every game. Something that many, less consistent archetypes didn’t do. (Looking at you, Buzzroc)

It’s best not to dwell on the past, but sometimes, when I’m disallusioned by the current state of the Pokemon TCG, I think back to my first tournament with this deck and think “What I wouldn’t give for just one more tournament.”

In the present, many people play old formats at regionals after being knocked out of contention for day 2. Usually it’s 2006 and 2010 formats that get all the love. But in a decade or so, once the 2018 Worlds format is but a distant memory, I’ll be playing my Zoropod.

#ptcg #Pokemon #Zoroark #Golisopod

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undauntedtcg · 5 years

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Deck Profile: Ultra Chess

As a previously pure and devout Zoroark player, I hadn’t bought cards for any archetypes that weren’t Zoroark since Crimson Invasion’s release. But the Unified Minds prerelease got me a couple copies of the new Naganadel GX and I wanted to play at a local store’s first post-rotation tournament. It was there, Ultra Chess was born...or so I thought. The weekend before, Xander Pero had won the DC Open with his very different list predicated on the same strategy. I found his list to lack early game consistency, so I took some ideas from his list and recreated my initial one. I think it’s quite strong!

The List

Pokemon (25) 3 Naganadel GX UMI 1 Naganadel GX FBL 1 Naganadel LOT 4 Poipole FBL 1 Pheromosa FBL 1 Kartanna UNB 1 Xurkitree UMI 1 Buzzwole FBL 1 Nihilego LOT 1 Persian GX UNB 1 Aerodactyl GX UMI 1 Melmetal UNB 1 Dewgong 1 Ditto* 1 Froslass 2 Snorunt 1 Mew UMB 1 Marshadow UNB 1 Dedenne GX UNB

Trainers (25) 4 Lillie 4 Cynthia 1 Lusamine*

4 Mysterious Treasure 4 Pokemon Communication 2 Reset Stamp 1 Beast Ball 1 Spell Tag

4 Ultra Space

Energy (10) 4 Rainbow Energy 4 Triple Acceleration Energy 1 Beast Energy 1 Water Energy

Naganadel GX is what really makes this deck tick. It’s our best attacker for setting up the checkmate scenarios this deck takes advantage of. Ultra Conversion is an insane ability more powerful than Zoroark’s Trade, if perhaps, more selective. Venom Shot, being able to hit anywhere on the opponent’s board for just a two energy attachments can KO any tag team in two attacks.

While this Naganadel cannot draw cards, it’s perhaps even more vital. Resetting both player’s prizes to 3 is the only real win condition against the majority of decks. Beast Raid is also fine, I guess.

We play 6 Ultra Beasts that are honestly just for discarding with Naganadel GX. Their attacks are quite good, however. One-shotting Pikarom with Buzzwole or copying Flare Strike with Nihilego are fantastic options. Pheromosa and Kartana are optimal starts . But, they’ll all get discarded pretty quickly.

Persian is most often what our Ditto* becomes. Searching for two cards and digging through the deck with Naganadel GX is so powerful. Vengence is also a fantastic attack in combination with Ultra Conversion.

Aerodactly is bascially here just for Pikarom. Setting up Stinger GX into Boulder Crush will win most games, even though I think Naganadel GX is just as fine of an attacker in that matchup. Aerodactly also presents an obstacle to Malamar, however, it’s ability forcing extra energy onto Malamar’s attackers. The increased cost will slow many decks to a halt. It is worth noting that you Aerodactly is merely my second choice ditto evolution against Malamar, more on that later.

Melmetal is here purely for the Gardevoir Sylveon match-up. Stinger into a one-shot with Heavy Impact is the best way to beat the deck.

Our last Ditto*-only evolution is Dewgong. Against Malamar, Stinger GX isn’t all that great. Prize racing them and harassing benched Inkays, however, is a very do-able plan.

Pre-evolutions aren’t typically worthy of note, but Ditto* is incredibly important to play correctly in this deck. You only get to use one of your tech stage ones per game, choose wisely. Also, the most important rule--and one that opponents on TCGO haven’t respected--Don’t bench it on the turn you attack into spell tag. Just...why? Furthermore, try and bench it against Malamar early. Like, before they can kill it with Distortion Door + Mew.

A 2-1 line of Froslass is the most deck space we dedicate to one specific match-up. Benching two Snorunts against Reshizard is a tremendous amount of pressure. Stinger into Spiteful Sigh win’s the match-up very easily. Froslass is still an amazing attacker in other match-ups though.

We have a very standard supporter count, save one small inclusion!

Lusamine* can very easily swing tempo in your favor. Better yet, because of how aggressive this format is, your first active tends to die early. It’s easier than ever to put the opponent on odd prizes.

The items, for the most part, are very straightforward. Search to get out all of the little guys like Poipole and Ditto*. Reset Stamp to keep the opponent’s hand in check, especially on the Stinger GX turn.

Beast Ball is insane in this deck! We play 14 Ultra Beasts! Odds are, we’re gonna prize one. This card can also be necessary to fish Naganadel GX FBL out to Stinger GX to achieve our win condition.

Spell Tag is a rather weird inclusion, I’ll be the first to admit. However, there is a lot it can do. Primarily, it’s purpose is to win the Pikarom match-up in two attacks. Venom Shot 170 onto Pikarom, Stinger GX with Spell Tag attached, and once they knock out Naganadel, put 40 on to Pikarom and Psypower the remaining 30 onto Pikarom with Mew.

Ultra Space is the best search card in the deck. Early game? Grab Poipoles. Mid-Late game? Search for Beasts to Ultra Conversion away. Also a great out to Power Plant as it gives us Naganadel’s ability back online and searches out a Pokemon to discard.

Rainbow, Triple Acceleration, and Beast Energy all make a lot of sense, but I think one energy in the deck is worthy of note:

1 Basic water is super important against Reshizard. Not putting 10 damage on the Froslass allows you to avoid Sudden Death after they knockout your active Naganadel GX post-Stinger.

This deck, clearly, has a lot of options! There are some cards that, for consistency’s sake, didn’t make it into this list. But, depending on the meta you’re expecting, here are some tech options

Xurkitree GX is a fantastic wall against decks like Malamar with Recycle Energy, Whimsicott GX, other variants of Naganadel Checkmate, ect.

If you’re expecting a lot of Malamar, this card almost can win games. Dewgong settting up knockouts on 2 Malamars, Grimsley moving 30 from wherever damage from Shadow Impact get’s placed to one squid for the KO, and Mew’s Psypower to hit the other. Shut down their engine, win the match-up. So free.

Brock’s is a card I cut from the main deck very hesitantly. In longer games, it allows you to shuffle your 6 Conversionable Ultra Beasts back into the deck to keep drawing. In my testing, most of the time games are so fast it’s not needed. But if you’re expecting slower games against slower decks, play this.

Lastly, if you’re expecting a lot of Reshizard, this stops them one-shotting Naganadels and forces the game to slow down, almost always to your benefit.

This deck is definitely fairly difficult to pilot correctly, but the best advice I can give is to let your opponent show you how you’re going to win. This deck is super reactive and half of our game plan is to just let them play into one of the deck’s win conditions.

Would I recommend this deck for a large tournament? Maybe. If you can make an awesome meta-call, choose all the right techs and hit the right matchups? Go for it! Even then, I think this deck can compete with most tier 1 archetypes. But the question I pose to you is this: Is it better than other, faster decks? If so, take this to a tournament and achieve greatness.

Happy Checkmating!

(Images from https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-tcg/pokemon-cards/)

#ptcgo #pokemon #Naganadel #Checkmate #ptcg #decklist

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undauntedtcg · 5 years

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Untested Concept: TordZard in Expanded!

Watching the 2019 World Championships, Tord Reklev’s Reshizard deck really caught my attention, as it did most other player’s, being the most played deck at league cups everywhere. I was looking for the best way of bringing the archetype into expanded, and I think I may have found it!

The List

Pokemon (14) 2 Reshiram & Charizard GX 1 Eevee & Snorlax GX 2 Ninetales TEU 2 Vulpix TEU 1 Victini* 2 Volcanion EX 3 Dedenne GX 1 Tapu Lele GX

Trainers (29) 4 Welder

4 Ultra Ball 4 Trainer's Mail 3 Random Receiver 3 Fighting Fury Belt 2 Float Stone 2 Switch 2 Cherish Ball 1 Pal Pad 1 Computer Search

3 Giant Hearth

Energy (17) 17 Fire Energy

Reshiram & Charizard is such a crazy attacker. There aren’t many ways to work up to one-shots with it in the current standard format, with Choice Band having rotated. But it has a whole host of options in expanded, which we’ll get to later. It’s GX attack can hit through Safeguard Pokemon like Keldeo GX and Hoopa, which is definitely noteworthy, but that might be the only situation where it’s useful as Flare Strike should be able to one-shot without needing the full 6 energy.

Eevee & Snorlax serves a few important functions in this deck. Most importantly, it’s not weak to water like the rest of our attackers. Given the prevalence of Archiestoise variants in expanded, I think the card is worth including for that alone. It’s second attack, Dump Truck Press, one-shots Zoroark GX, along with it’s normal range of partners, and can be used on consecutive turns without having to switch out.

From the small amount I’ve been able to test decks using this engine, Guzma sucks. You can’t play Welder if you’re also playing Guzma, and that just seems really bad. Instead, we play a 2-2 line of Ninetales. You can activate it off of a Giant Hearth search, and Victini* will shuffle back in all the energy you use. You have to be a little careful with this strategy and make sure you have enough energy left to use Victini*.

Speaking of Victini*, it’s perfect for this deck. Between Volcanion’s Steam Up and Ninetales’ Nine Temptations, our 17 energy goes away fairly quickly. Infinity will almost always be able to reach a knockout, and refuel all of this deck’s tricks in the process.

This is the card that I think breaks this deck. Flare Strike can hit for 270 after one Steam Up and a Fighting Fury Belt, one-shotting almost any Pokemon in the game. Not too much else to say here, it’s just broken.

I’m still undecided what the counts for the support pokemon should be, but 3 Dedenne seems pretty solid. Hand sizes often get too big for Shaymin EX, so Dedenne is the next logical option. I don’t love the idea of discarding certain cards with Dedenne, but this deck is so aggressive that if you can’t use something right now, you’re probably better off pitching it in the name of continuing to apply pressure.

Remember when this card was $80 each? Well, it’s more like $5 now, but it’s still just as playable as a 4th copy of Random Receiver. This deck only plays 4 supporters, Tapu Lele makes Cherish Ball and Ultra Ball outs to Welder. Energy Drive is also a half-decent attack, although it pales in comparison to Flare Strike.

Welder, Random Receiver, and Pal Pad all work together to further the current Fire-Type Agenda: Welder every turn. The only supporter we play is Welder, so Random Receiver can only ever find Welder. Pal Pad can shuffle in 2 Welders let’s you Welder up to 6 times in a single game.

Trainer’s Mail can is an out to finding every relevant card in the deck, or something that can search it out at least. Also a key piece in making sure that the most important goal of all time is achievable: Play Welder, SMASH, GG

The split between these two is up in the air. I think 4 Ultra 2 Cherish is better for Setting up Ninetales and Volcanion EX. It does, however, consume more resources. I could see that being a potential problem, but consistency is king in my mind.

Fighting Fury Belt is the card that allows us to hit relevant numbers against Tag Teams with Reshizard. But, against basic GXs like Tapu Lele and Tapu Koko, it helps Volcanion EX hit 170 after 1 Steam Up. Float Stone just prevents things like Volcanion EX getting stuck in the active, little explanation required.

Switch just lets us reactivate Flare Strike and escape the dreaded Volcanion EX start without committing a Float Stone.

This deck, even with the busted Welder engine we’ve established here, can have the occasional hiccup. I know, I’m shocked, too. Computer Search is the best search card ever printed, I can see it getting this deck out of some fairly awkward hands.

Lastly, Giant Hearth is ridiculous. So much so that I cut Heat Factory* for it. Discard a card to activate Welder, Nine Temptations, Steam Up. Pick your poison.

One card I really wanted to fit into this deck but am having trouble finding a cut for is Heatran GX. Burning Road lets up Welder to some awkward targets and still move the energies around as needed. I just really have no clue what I would cut for it.

Overall, I think this deck has a lot of potential in expanded. It feels weird only playing the 4 supporters, but Welder is honestly the only thing you want to use most of the time, so I think it’s correct. But perhaps I’m wrong about all of this and need to rethink my life choices, who knows? There are so many ways to play Reshizard in expanded. In fact, I urge you to also check out Rahul Reddy’s list as well. He’s trying the Green’s Exploration engine which I think has a lot of potential.

Happy Flare Striking!

(Images from https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-tcg/pokemon-cards)

#ptcg #Reshiram #Charizard #Pokemon tcg #expanded #play! pokemon

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undauntedtcg · 5 years

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Cup Report: Blacephalon/Naganadel

I made top 4 with Blowns this weekend! After this and a few other tournaments with the deck, I think I’m prepared to present my thoughts on it. Luckily for me, my matchups today perfectly showcased what’s good about the deck and what needs work. With all that out of the way, let’s take a look at my list, matchups and what changes I want to make going forward.

The List!

Pokemon (17) 3 Blacephalon GX LOT 4 Naganadel LOT 2 Naganadel GX UMI 1 Poipole LOT 3 Poipole UMI 1 Heatran GX UMI 1 Turtonator DRM 1 Dedenne GX UNB 1 Mew UNB

Trainers (28) 4 Cynthia 4 Welder 1 Lillie

4 Mysterious Treasure 4 Beast Ring 4 Custom Catcher 2 Cherish Ball 1 Reset Stamp

2 Ultra Space 1 Giant Hearth 1 Heat Factory*

Energy (15) 1 Beast Energy* 14 Fire Energy

This list is fairly standard, so for the sake of brevity as this is already going to be quite long, I’m only going to go over a few noteworthy inclusions/counts.

I’m not actually sure why other people haven’t put Turtonator in this deck. It’s only a little more difficult to set up than Blacephelon GX and it gives this deck another out against Keldeo GX, which a few of our locals have been particularly fond of.

Blowns faces an odd challenge in this format. It really just wants to do only play Cynthia and Welder. But 8 supporters isn’t enough, and after today I’m not even convinced 9 is. Lillie was my choice as it’s amazing to see turn one, good enough later on, and my fear of opening Bill’s Analysis got the better of me. Bill’s is a perfectly fine alternative though, check out Martin Guilbert’s list from Sheffield.

Giant Hearth was great in testing, making Welder more accessible when your opponent takes you off of Beast Ring too quickly. However, I think 3rd Ultra Space or Lysandre Labs would’ve been better. Still worth considering, just probably not as a replacement of another stadium.

Enough about the list, let’s go through the rounds.

Round 1: Vs AbilityZard W

I had the nightmare opening hand. A couple of poipoles, a few beast ring, absolutely nothing to do turn one. My opponent managed to take take two prizes before I was able to find a clown, but once I did, I hit all of the beast rings and actually managed a set-up. There was honestly no reason for me to win this game after that opening, and it was the first time I noticed just how lukewarm this deck’s early game can be.

Round 2: Vs MalamarTags W

I was scared as soon as I saw the pairings. TrainerChip, also referred to as one of our local CP vacuums, playing Malamar, one of my worst match-ups. He started Jirachi, got multiple Inkays down, but didn’t play a supporter. Little did I know, even after three Stellar Wishes, he wouldn’t end up finding one the entire game. I set up Heatran GX and just ran over his board, Custom Catchering up and killing two Malamar on consecutive turns. This reaffirmed my belief that Mally was a fine matchup, if maybe slightly favored for them. I was very, very wrong.

Round 3: Vs MalamarTags (Again) L

Another fun pairing, I hit Grant Manley. By far one of the best players in this area, who coincidentally, started a cult of Malamar players storming my entire state and taking over the top cut of every cup they’ve attended. I’m pretty confident in the match-up! It’s even Best-of-1, in all likelihood, Malamar will just brick. In short, no. We both drew god the entire way through the game (”Did you put all seven of those energy in play this turn?! -Grant Manley 2019), played just about perfectly, and then we both started making bad decisions. Mine ended up being worse though, as activating spell tag on a turn that I didn’t have to allowed him to finish off my Blacephelon GX for game. I realized my mistake as I was announcing my attack, it truly was the darkest timeline. We talked a lot about the game and the matchup afterwards and I was slowly beginning to figure out that the match-up is a lot worse than I thought.

Round 4: Vs Green’s Reshizard W

I needed to win my next two to guarantee a spot in top 4 and this is by far the best match-up I could’ve asked for. I could hear Grant in the background saying “That hurt my soul” as I gusted up a Reshizard and killed it with Turtonator, a 3 for 1 prize trade that should forever define the term “Power-play.” My opponent tried to play the one-prize game with volcantion but I just ran over them with Heatran GX’s Steaming Stomp until he gave me a Reshizard to Hot-burn for game.

Round 5: Vs Green’s Reshizard (Again) W

It must be Christmas or something, because I got the very same matchup again. This time it played out even better though. My opponent killed my first blown and I was able to respond by playing 4 beast ring in the same turn. The matchup was pretty much auto-pilot from there.

Top 4: Vs MalamarTags (Again dear god why me) LL Three malamar players, along with myself, made top 4. Which means I needed to fight through my worst, most grindy match-up twice in a best of three. This is the match that really made me believe that the match-up is bad. I think bad might actually be an understatement. If they actually set up, it’s completely unwinnable. I drew far worse than I did in round 3 and it resulted in a swift 2-0 from my opponent. Did I play 100% optimally? Probably not, but I don’t think many things could’ve changed the outcome of that match.

Moving Forward!

I’m definitely going to be trying different changes to improve the Malamar match-up, but for now the changes I would make simply with consistency in mind are

-1 Reset Stamp -1 Giant Hearth +1 Heatran GX +1 Ultra Space

I didn’t play Reset Stamp for any meaningful effect all day and would’ve rather had almost any other card. Heatran GX is the best attacker against Malamar that isn’t too situational, and I found myself wanting to attack with it more in other match-ups. In my mind, totally worth it.

Giant Hearth is an awesome card, but if you hit it instead of Ultra Space early game, life is a lot harder. We just want Poipoles.

Blacephalon needs a way to deal with Malamar. Hoopa? Lysandre Labs? I don’t know yet. All I can say definitively is that if you’re expecting to see high amounts of the squids, bring any other deck. Blowns was created with a tag-team heavy meta in mind. Can it beat Malamar? Probably not without some big changes to the list. Would it be the best deck in format if it could find a good answer to Malamar? Absolutely.

That’s been my experience with the deck so far! Let me know if you have any questions or just make fun of me for slipping from forever 2nd place to 3rd.

Happy Lost Zoning!

#tournament #ptcg #Blacephalon #Naganadel #League Cup #pokemon tcg

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undauntedtcg · 5 years

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Deck Profile: ZoroToad

Starting off with a fun one... for the person playing solitaire.

At heart, I am a die-hard Zoroark player and I have played just about every Zoroark deck that has ever been a part of any meta since the card became legal. This deck, in simple terms, is just mean. That’s never stopped me before, but there, that’s my disclaimer. A more important disclaimer however, deck profiles are looong. List, card explanations and strategy below.

The List!

Pokémon - 19 4 Zorua DEX 70 4 Zoroark-GX SLG 53 2 Seismitoad-EX FFI 20 1 Oranguru UPR 114 1 Girafarig LOT 94 1 Articuno-GX CES 31 1 Exeggcute PLF 4 1 Tirtouga PLB 27 1 Articuno-GX CES 31 1 Shaymin-EX ROS 77 3 Tapu Lele-GX GRI 60

Trainer Cards - 35 2 Brigette 2 Colress 1 N 1 Professor Juniper 1 Pokemon Fan Club 1 Lt. Surge's Strategy 1 Guzma 1 Acerola 1 Faba 1 Team Flare Grunt 1 Plumeria 1 Team Skull Grunt 1 Team Rocket's Handiwork

4 Ultra Ball 4 VS Seeker 2 Cherish Ball 2 Counter Catcher 2 Field Blower 1 Rescue Stretcher 1 Reset Stamp 1 Float Stone 1 Dowsing Machine

2 Silent Lab

Energy - 6

4 Double Colorless Energy 2 Water Energy

A 4-4 Zoroark line, I think, is fairly self explanatory. If you can’t draw cards, you’ll lose. Draw all of them instead. Also sometimes an attacking option, but this deck rarely takes prize cards.

Seismitoad EX is our early game attacker, if you can call it an attacker. The item lock by itself isn’t really enough to keep our opponent at bay, but adding energy denial makes it so difficult for them to play the game, which is pretty much our goal. I’ve found that, since the Lusamine ban, you will need to begin using resource management eventually in order to close out the game, but toad is your best attacker until you’re out of VS Seekers.

Resource management is the lifeblood of this deck. This deck' s late game plan is to cycle through VS seekers and other disruption tools until the opponent is completely out of resources.

Girafarig’s use cases are so much bigger in expanded, especially with Mew & Mewtwo GX using attacks from discarded Pokemon. But the primary use of this card is lost zoning supporters to render VS Seeker a dead card and energies in the event that the opponent has methods of energy retrieval.

Tirtouga is a card that first saw play in Jimmy Pendarvis’s list from Portland Regionals last year. It prevents deck out forever, save the opponent playing N or Team Rocket’s Handiwork and it’s an easy discard for trade, ultra ball, Plumeria, ect.

Articuno GX is usually the nail in the coffin against most decks. A well-timed Cold Crush GX on a fully powered up attacker should buy you enough time to take full control of the opponent’s board. Reshizard and Pikarom are the two most common victims.

The trainer’s in this deck are pretty standard, so I won’t spend too much time on them, but I will cover some new additions and interesting inclusions.

Fan club replaces what would normally be my third Brigette in this deck. It can grab Seismitoad EX, Tapu Lele GX, or Shaymin EX early on which helps getting Quaking Punch going from turn 2 easier.

A new addition to the expanded format, Lt. Surge fits perfectly in this deck. Ever wanted to play a draw supporter and Guzma in the same turn? Surge has you covered. Also allows us to play Plumeria/Flare Grunt in combination with Team Skull Grunt which is completely insane.

This card is literally an evosoda that’s also an out to a supporter in this deck. Unfortunately, it can’t grab Seismitoad EX, but that’s the only bad thing about the card. Play Cherish Ball.

The last new addition to the deck is Reset Stamp! It’s just a one sided N that allows you to pull off a lot of cool combos. This, along with surge and counter catcher allows you to effectively play 4 supporter effects in a turn.

So, with all the cards out of the way, let’s talk strategy. If you want clarification on any cards I didn’t cover, just ask! I’m more than happy to answer questions.

This deck has a ton of options, but it’s actually quite simple. In the early game use Seismitoad and your disruption cards to harass the opponent and slow the game to a halt, then transition into resource management and deck them out with Team Rocket’s Handiwork.

That being said, this deck is, at times, a headache to play. Unless you’re extremely comfortable with it, I wouldn’t take this to a regional-level event. The games take forever and it’s far from easy to play. On the same token, don’t take this to best of one events. It won’t work, you’ll always either tie or lose and that’s not a successful strategy for making top cut. But, if you’re as sadistic as I am, go ahead! Ruin some poor, unsuspecting normal person’s day.

This is the first in a large number of deck profiles you can expect to see leading up the Richmond Regional Championships in November, but I won’t be all expanded content. I’m attending a standard league cup this weekend (Sept. 14th) and you all can expect a full report on that, be it a tale of glorious victory or a masterclass in failure.

Happy Trading!

(Scans from https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-tcg/pokemon-cards/)

#ptcg #ptcgo #expanded #Zoroark #Seismitoad #play! pokemon #pokemon #pokemon tcg

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