Through the last couple months I have taken a very meta oriented approach to Pokemon. For Dallas Regionals I played the same deck that won San Jose Regionals, and for Costa Mesa Regionals I played the deck that won Dallas Regionals. The conclusion I have come to is that these decks that win Regionals are rarely countable in any reasonable way and that the counters … Continue reading Golisopod Zoroark & Lycanroc Zoroark
This past weekend I was lucky enough to make finals out of 512 players, using a deck that I can only describe as ridiculous. I will not be giving a tournament report but I will be explaining matchups in detail, using examples from the event and evidence from my rounds. If you’d like to hear about how my rounds went, I recently did an interview … Continue reading Costa Mesa Regionals 2nd Place Zoroark Eggs – How to play the deck
Costa Mesa is in just two days and the list of options I have has diminished heavily. Decks like Giratina Siesmitoad, Darkrai GX, Dusknoir Koko and Toad Garbodor were on my radar and dropped for different reasons, while other decks had to take some serious editing in order to stay viable options. Garbodor with the new Magical Swap Tapu Lele is an idea I had … Continue reading Final Options for Costa Mesa – Garbodor Magical Swap, Zoroark Eggs, and Night March
It is my premature prediction that Zoroark, Garbodor and either Glaceon or Fighting/stuff will be the top three decks for Costa Mesa. This article is predicated on that prediction and is here to give meta options for the event. All four of these seem great to me thus far, which is unusual because I normally can find at least one top-tier deck that I dislike. Playing … Continue reading Costa Mesa – Garbodor Sudowoodo, Glaceon and Zoroark
I decided that this video is not the quality level I need it to be at for Cut or Tap Stage 2, so instead of it being Paywall protected, I have it up publically. For some reason, my program didn’t pick up the correct mic, and there were a couple other issues. Overall it didn’t seem like a video I was willing to make people … Continue reading Empoleon VS Magnezone – Public Episode of Gameplay Analysis
There’s a new set out and that means it is time to update the common archetypes to fit the new cards, and time to make some new decklists for the new options. In this piece I have four decks I cover, including Empoleon, Buzzwole Lycaroc, Magnezone Dusk Mane Necrozma, and Espeon Garbodor. It’s worth noting that I think Greninja has a lot of potential now that Cynthia … Continue reading Standard Options – BuzzRoc, Magnezone Stuff, Espeon, and Empoleon
Through my Expanded testing, I have come to the concerning conclusion that Glaceon GX is extremely strong. In Standard, the deck certainly can run into issues with all the new metal support, that will certainly create at least one top-tier archetype, but in Expanded metal is much less of an issue and as a result, Glaceon is free to provide a strong lock at very … Continue reading Expanded Quad Glaceon GX
The majority of my testing has been dedicated to Espeon Garbodor, inspired by the deck Igor, Brad, and Jimmy all made top 8 with at Dallas Regionals. It occurred to me that Garbodor actually could beat Zoroark decks and that this probably was the case not just for Expanded, but for both formats. The viability of this deck may be shortlived, considering Ultra Prism could … Continue reading Espeon Garbodor as an option for Australia
This tournament report is a little different from others because I focus primarily on educating the reader with my experience from the event, leaving out details or information that are less relevant to learning from my successes and failures. I focus a lot on the specific cards that I teched in my list and how they actually were used, the specific misplays I made, and specifically … Continue reading “Twelfth Night (March):” Dallas Regionals 12th Place Tournament Report and Analysis
As testing for Dallas continues, I update all of my lists while exploring new concepts within the game and analyze different ways to build archetypes. This article is centered mainly around Giratina Seismitoad, as it is the deck I have been able to find the most creative room to work with. I also have an explanation of how Expanded is different from standard, in the … Continue reading More on Dallas Options – Seismitoad Giratina, Tapu Koko Dusknoir, & Matchup/Strategy Coverage
Dallas is exactly two weeks from today and there are tons of options for the event. This article is going to cover my lists for everything I have been working with for Dallas, including: Zoroark Lycanroc Seismitoad Garbodor Night March Vespiquen Zoroark Gardevoir Other than the decks, I cover some debates that are running around right now such as which Zoroark variant is the best, and how … Continue reading Dallas Options
Today I have five deck lists in total, none of which I would consider very normal (with the exception of the ZoroRoc list). But as you will read on, there is an addition to Gardevoir and VikaBulu that we all seem to have ignored for little reason. This is mostly just going to be an article talking about the standard meta decks, but I also … Continue reading Updating The Meta Decks – ZoroRoc, Gardevoir, & VikaBulu
I believe Fighting Garbodor is the best deck in both formats. This concept came to me from Kian on the way back from a league cup. Landorus and Buzzwole are both excellent in this Expanded meta because the spread easily takes double KOs on Night Marchers, while it hits weakness on Zoroark GX. In Standard, again you smack Zoroark GX while shutting Trade down, but … Continue reading Fight Fight Fight! – Buzzwole Garbodor in Standard and Expanded
After Summer break began, I knew it was going to be the perfect time to create something rogue. We have established strong draw power, solid supporters, and enough sets to play around with, making this an easy time to find unorthodox decks. This article is going to detail the two rogue decks I am testing currently, as well as some other concepts and how they … Continue reading Creating Rogue Options: Mismagius Garbodor & Kingdra Zoroark
As I type this, I am at Memphis Regionals, looking at a notepad stacked with information about the event. Unfortunately, I forgot to register for the tournament. Not sure how that happened; I have a memory of registering but I suppose that might have been a different Regionals on accident? Either way, I had to sit this one out. The extra time gave me the … Continue reading Musings From an Outside Perspective: Understanding What People Will Play
Hello Cut or Tap readers, my name is Gabriel Smart. I am a competitive senior who plays in the northern California area. My accomplishments aren’t too spectacular at the moment, but as of now, I sit at 122/400 CP. Today I will be covering multiple decks and their current spot in the standard meta going into Memphis regionals. Towards the end, I will cover a … Continue reading What is truely the Broken Deck? A look into standard and the ever changing expanded format
The meta is somewhat static, with a few clear best decks, and several other tier two or three options. This means Memphis Regionals should have a predictable meta, making it an easy tournament to prepare for. This article is here to display the options that I consider to be the top tier, along with some lists for other decks and explanations of why they are … Continue reading “The (First) Impression That I Get:” Options for Memphis Regionals
This piece focusses on the new rapidly developing meta and how we now may have to adjust the way we predict the meta in order to find the best play. As you can read in the free section, I talk about the downside of playing decks with even matchups across the board and relate that to the new meta development. In a way, this is … Continue reading A Conversation About the Current State of the Game; Regi/Sect, Zoroark Golisopod, Darkrai Zoroark
This article covers my Golisopod Zoroark list, with a shorter section on Gardevoir towards the end. The Golisopod section covers the overall strategy of the deck, with in-depth matchup descriptions. This article should give you pretty much every you need for the deck with a list explanation and commentary on why it is the best play right now. Before I get into the decks I want … Continue reading Expanded Theory; Zoroark Golisopod for San Jose Regionals
