Welcome back, Cut or Tap readers! The first major event of the Prismatic Evolutions format, Mérida Regionals, recently concluded with some very fascinating results. After a couple weeks of the format developing across online and local tournaments, Dragapult ex/Dusknoir, Gardevoir ex, and Lugia VSTAR/Archeops were anticipated as the top three performers of the metagame. Looking at the results of Mérida Regionals, a completely different story … Continue reading Fast Track to Top Cut: Miraidon ex for EUIC

Welcome back, subscribers, to our beginning coverage of the Prismatic metagame in preparation for EUIC. In this piece I will detail a deck that has been not only competitive but extremely fun to play. I’ve enjoyed its iterations throughout the Stellar Crown format, and now with some new inclusions, we can stand up to the rest of the format. We will go over new strategies … Continue reading “Fiesta Crab”: Klawf Box for EUIC

Hello again, Cut or Tap readers! The San Antonio Regional Championships recently concluded, and I managed to secure a Top 8 finish with Gardevoir out of over 2000 players. Unfortunately, San Antonio was the last major event before Prismatic Evolutions becomes legal, and Budew and Regigigas will completely change the metagame. In this article, I will briefly go over my San Antonio list, my concluding … Continue reading Gardevoir Top 8 Recap, and How To Change It For Prismatic Evolutions

Prismatic Evolutions might not have the most playable cards, but the ones that are playable have completely warped the Pokemon TCG. If you take a look at the metagame from two weeks ago and now today, it looks completely different. Who would have thought one little grass Pokemon could change so, so much in this game. Budew has begun its takeover, and with multiple events … Continue reading “Heading South of the Border:” Decks for Merida Regionals

Hello Cut or Tap readers, my name is Benny Billinger, and I am a player for Dead Draw Gaming. I am a first-year Master with two Top 32’s under my belt, and I was ranked #2 globally last year in the Seniors division. Block Snorlax was a deck that helped me achieve a lot of success in Seniors, including a Regional win, a Regional Top … Continue reading “A Sleeper Pick:” Block Snorlax for the San Antonio Regionals

Welcome back, Subs! I’ve had some distance from the computer as of lately and I’m excited to be writing for you all. Pokemon TCG has become quite stale when talking about the Stellar Crown format. With this in mind, it becomes harder to prepare for the upcoming tournaments that round out Standard pre-Prismatic Evolution. Birmingham, Rio De Janeiro, and San Antonio will have little impact … Continue reading “The Tail End:” Stellar Crown Format’s End

Hello, Cut or Tap readers! We are soon approaching the end of the Surging Sparks format and the introduction of Budew from Prismatic Evolutions. Regidrago VStar has dominated this format, and has been the deck I have found success with myself. At the last Regional Championships in Toronto, I was able to pick up a solid Top 32 finish with the deck, but I nearly … Continue reading Flying High One Last Time? A Look at Lugia VStar’s Potential Before Rotation

Hi, first-time writer for Cut or Tap here. I’m Brent Tonisson, and I am a player from Sydney, Australia who plays a lot of tournaments. I finished Rank 1 for Championship Points in the 2024 Season, and got 2nd at the recent Latin American Championships. Preparing for a major tournament may seem like a daunting task, but fortunately there are predictable patterns and ways to … Continue reading How to Prepare for Major Tournaments

Welcome to 2025! I hope everyone had a good holiday season, and that you’re ready to get back to some Pokemon action. I have enjoyed the break from events, but I have been itching to get back to playing. 2024 was an incredible year for the Pokemon TCG that saw massive growth, and I am excited to see what happens this year. I will be … Continue reading My Top Three Decks for Birmingham and Rio de Janeiro Regionals

Hello, Cut or Tap readers! Seeing as this is my first time writing for the site, it only makes sense for me to provide you all with a short introduction to myself as a player. My name is Caleb Rogerson, and I am a professional Pokémon TCG player for Team DDG. So far this season, I’ve attended six major tournaments, placing in the Top 64 … Continue reading It’s a Regidrago World and We’re All Living In It

Introduction Hey everyone, I’m Michael Davidson, a player for Team Dead Draw Gaming and a writer for Cut or Tap. I am a second-year master, and currently, I’m ranked 3rd in the US and Canada, and just made Asymmetrical Top Cut at Toronto Regionals with the slow variant of Gardevoir. In this article I discuss how the meta shifted to allow “Slow Gardy” to maintain … Continue reading Gardevoir: A Refreshing Change of Pace

Over the years I have played, the majority of formats have been dominated by a select few decks. I would watch decks take up 18-20+ percent of each format, and sometimes they would feel stale. In the year 2024, that is not the case. The Pokemon Trading Card Game is currently in one of the most diverse metagames that I have ever seen. Instead of … Continue reading SmartTCG’s Top Two Decks for Toronto

Welcome back, Subs! I’m happy to be writing for you all before this next tournament. We are just a few short weeks away from the Toronto Regionals, which I will be attending and hoping for a solid finish! Before getting into Archaludon ex, let’s go over the last two tournaments in this new Surging Sparks meta, as you all have not heard from me since … Continue reading “The Meta Bridge Builder:” Archaludon ex and the Surging Sparks Meta

Hello Cut or Tap readers! This past weekend, the Sacramento Regional Championships took place, and I managed to place in the Top 16 with Regidrago VStar. This tournament was the first event with Surging Sparks legal, and it seemed like many players finally caught on to how good Regidrago VStar was, with it shooting up in play rate from a fairly constant 8% last format … Continue reading Is Miraidon back? A Look at Its Sacramento Success

Welcome back, Cut or Tap readers! There have been a few Regionals in the past few weeks, including Gdansk and Lille, which have shaken up the meta quite a lot by introducing the newly successful archetype Bannette, and also cementing Regidrago as a force to be reckoned with. With the Latin America International Championships (LAIC) right around the corner, the Stellar Crown format is shortly … Continue reading Ca-Caw! Pidgeot Control For The Sacramento Regional Championships

After its strong performance at the Gdansk Regional Championships, Banette has proved to be a top contender in the current meta. With the Gardevoir engine being able to trade favorably into two-prize decks like Raging Bolt, and the Item lock to slow down aggressive Dusknoir decks like Palkia and Terapagos, Banette has a very solid matchup spread, which is compounded by its consistency. After my … Continue reading Spooky Season ain’t Quite Over Yet: the Rising Star Banette ex/Gardevoir ex

What would happen if someone tried to use Chat GPT to simulate an entire Pokemon tournament? I gave it a shot, and it actually worked. This might be a big deal. It means that basically anybody can run simulated tournaments and figure out what the best deck is for any given tournament. It means you don’t have to guess what the play is anymore – … Continue reading Simulating a Tournament – Data, Math & Matchups

Cut or Tap Subs, welcome back to another piece with yours truly about the Gdansk Regionals that took place this past weekend. Not only does this complete the major Regionals in the Stellar Crown format before LAIC, but it also completes just about half of the 2024-25 season. This format has had plenty of twists and turns with format giants emerging, while old friends resurged … Continue reading “They Brought the What to Poland?”: Gdansk Rogue Finishes

Pokémon TCG Pocket is a new way to play the Pokémon TCG on mobile devices, developed by The Pokémon Company, DeNA Co Ltd, and Creatures Inc—the card designers for both this game and the physical card game. It features a unique, completely isolated format, and slightly modified game-rules. Who is this app for, why did they change the game-rules, what are they doing differently with … Continue reading The Game-Design Behind Pokémon TCG Pocket