Post Arlington Regionals, I have conceded to the meta. In other words, I am now only comfortable playing higher tier decks with strong engines. Mew, Lugia, Lost Box: these are archetypes with strong engines that offer high levels of power and a consistent support engine. Regis and Mewtwo also have engines, but not with the same level of resilience. I played Arceus Box at Arlington, … Continue reading Decks With True Engines
I am not entirely sure what I will play for Arlington yet. I brought two decks, so I will post two lists. I definitely do think these two decks are the best plays and I think either one will lead to great result when piloted well. Continue reading My deck for Arlington Regionals 2022
I asked my followers on Twitter if they wanted an article about Mewtwo or a piece on options for Arlington. The response was about 50/50 so Cut or Tap is going to cover both bases. The Toronto Regional Champion Piper Lepine will write about Mewtwo and we will be posting an article from her next week. I am very excited about this because Cut or … Continue reading Options for Arlington
This is my first vlog posted on the site. I realize my camera angle is very poor, so next time there is a vlog I will avoid having the camera at such a low angle. Continue reading Toronto 2022 Regionals Vlog
Long time Cut or Tap fans will remember that I post my decks before events. I do this because I want my subscribers to understand that I do share all of the ideas I come up with and never omit ideas that I think are potentially viable. This is not an article; it is just a post with my deck list for Toronto and a … Continue reading My deck for Toronto Regionals 2022
This article talks about several decks in less detail than one would normally expect from a Cut or Tap piece. If this article comes off a bit scattered, that’s because my options are still very open and many decks seem to have merit. The power of Lugia is unparalleled and finding the proper counter is not easy. In this piece you will see info on … Continue reading Final options for Toronto
Team Cut or Tap came up with a variant of Lost Box that is centered around Snorlax. This video is a best of three with Michael Perez playing Lost Box Snorlax against me (Phinn) with Tord Reklev’s Lugia list from LAIC. We commentate over the match discussing the deck and it’s potential viability. Continue reading Lost Box Snorlax VS Lugia VStar (Tord’s list)
When looking on Play Limitless, there was only one deck that seemed to have a genuinely favorable match up into Lugia. Surprisingly that deck is ZoroBox. If Lugia is as dominant as it currently appears to be and will be approaching 40% of the meta-share at Toronto, maybe Zoroark is worth considering. In this video I pilot both decks, playing against myself. This video was … Continue reading Lugia VStar (Tord’s list) VS Zoroark Stage 1 Box
I like to counter the meta. I like to play decks that are very hard to pilot and learn to outplay my opponents. I like to come up with creative takes on strong archetypes or recreate decks that are considered less than tier 1. Lugia is stopping me from doing all of the above. Lugia has been too strong for me to find a proper … Continue reading Type A Lugia (Yveltal & Charizard)
Mew MVax is the best aggro deck in standard and it probably would be the best deck in the format if not for Drapion V having a presence. How can you play Mew, without playing Mew? The best analog is Hisuian Zoroark VStar. Zoroark dishes out big one-shots starting on turn two and draws through almost as many cards as Mew does. The difference is … Continue reading A Better Way to Play Hisuian Zoroark VStar
In this video Michael Perez and I play a best of three match where I play my Regis list against Michael with Giratina Box. In my commentary I talk about how to play the match up from both sides, as well as general tips about playing Regis properly. I also cover a new tech I am adding to Giratina that makes the deck significantly better, … Continue reading Gameplay Analysis – Giratina Box VS Regis (Silver Tempest format)
Ironically, we see decks that are not unanimously considered tier 1 winning events repeatedly. You should not play the best deck if you want to win an event; you need to play the best deck for a given meta. Consider the results from Salt Lake City Regionals. Almost all the decks in top 8 were archetypes that are normally considered to be tier 2 or … Continue reading The Best Meta-call, Not the Best Deck
Have you missed me? I am excited to be writing again. In the traditional Cut or Tap style, there will not be much of an introduction; all meat, no fluff. This article explains how to build Giratina and play Giratina. I believe it is the best deck in the format and hopefully after reading this article you will understand why. Table of Contents – General … Continue reading Giratina Box – Everything You Need to Know
Here are 6 games of the Arceus Goodra VS Giratina Box match up. This video is free because it is of a lower quality than other paywalled videos. Gameplay analysis will return as a series soon where there is a focus on how each deck should be played in a given match up with footage of the match up being played. Continue reading Arceus Goodra VS Giratina Box
Post-rotation Lists These are my post-rotation (with evolving skies) deck lists, and a little bit of commentary for some of the decks. Currently there are lists for the following Regidrago Cherrim Ice Rider Calyrex Cinccino Shadow Rider Calyrex Alcremie Eternatus Umbreon Smeargle Eldegoss (rough draft) Continue reading Post Rotation Deck Lists
As I am writing this, my Fall term at Sacramento State is wrapping up. After I finish up these last three weeks, I will have a Spring and Summer term left before my graduation. Lately I have been thinking a lot about what I will do with my degree in economics. My plan from the start was to play Pokemon professionally after getting a degree, … Continue reading I will play Pokemon again
As I am writing this, I just finished my run in one of Pokestat’s old format PTCGO tournaments. The format this time was NAIC 2017, where the legal sets were: Primal Clash through Guardians Rising. I managed to make top 4 with Espeon Garb; a slightly different list from the one that earned me 17th place at NAIC three years ago. In 2017 I saw … Continue reading Revisiting 2017 – Espeon Garbodor
Seems about time I post a video! Lately I have been more interested in writing than creating game play content. Starting with this post, I will be putting up the video uploads again. Video Coaching is a series where I play both sides of a match up. I explain how to approach the match up from each perspective, share thoughts about the lists, and explain … Continue reading Video Coaching Ep. 2 (ADP VS Malamar)
Above is an audio recording of the article. Normally these recordings will be behind a paywall, but this was my first attempt at recording an article. The last two pieces have been about rogues and I want to give the meta-believers some content before Dallas. The three described decks are consistent, safe picks, with solid match ups. This piece focuses on the general strategy of … Continue reading Meta Options for Dallas: ZoroGarb, Dark, and Ultra Necrozma Garbodor
Before San Diego Regionals I had come to the conclusion that Persian Checkmate was the only deck I truly cared about and wanted to play. In my preparation for Dallas Regionals I have found that the same concept behind Persian in Standard can easily be applied in Expanded, but with more options and a higher level of consistency. The most significant additions are VS Seeker … Continue reading The Birds and the Bees: Expanded Vespiquen Checkmate
