Hey everybody! My name is Charlie Lockyer, and this is my second article for this wonderful site. Today, I will be discussing what decks I believe will be most prevalent in Brazil (including what decks I would be considering if I were attending), providing an update on Aerodactyl/Wobbuffet, and sharing my initial testing results for the next Expanded Regional in North America, which is Toronto. … Continue reading “Panqueca Grande Mão:” A Preview of Brazil, Updates on Aerodactyl, and one Option for Toronto

Phinnegan Lynch starring in the sequel to his last Regionals, return of the 9th. I thought for sure after getting 11th, 10th, and 9th, I could not bubble again. The Gambler’s Fallacy is a fallacy for a reason. While I do think I could have either played better, or use a better list in my last three Regionals, in this case I cannot find much … Continue reading Salt Lake City Regionals 9th Place Tournament Report & Deck Analysis

Hi folks, I’m James ‘Peterpot’ McInnes. You may remember me from such decks as ‘Toad Bats and Time Puzzles” which I got Top 8 at two Regionals with last year, “Mega Manectric with Giratina and Trev EX” which I Top 8’ed Canadian nationals with, and most recently, Wobbufett/Accelgor/Decidueye (WAD) which I finished 18th with in Portland. I began playing the Pokémon Trading Card Game last … Continue reading Winning All Day (WAD) with Wobbufett/Accelgor/Decidueye (WAD)

Welcome, Cut or Tap readers, to the article that will make your life (or at least deck choice) easier if you are heading into Salt Lake City Regionals this weekend! I have been building decks with Sun and Moon cards for what seems like ages, and I feel like I have had a fair bit of success in my findings. I have found our current … Continue reading “Chaos Wheel in the Sky:” Zach’s Top Six Picks for Salt Lake City

I apologize for taking extra time to post this article. I wanted to make a more tested version of the standard list in this article so that I could provide you all with the best lists I can make. Most of this article will be covering my Portland experience and Dark Dragons in Expanded, however I do cover my Standard Dark Dragons list later on … Continue reading Portland Regionals 9th place Dark Dragons List and Review

What’s up, Cut or Tap readers! My name is Jon and I’m extremely happy to be writing for the site again. Since we last talked, I have attended two major events: St. Louis Regionals (which was an absolute disaster of a tournament for me for several reasons) and Australian Intercontinental (where I got second place). In this article, I will go over my experience at … Continue reading “Level Ball For What Now?!?!” – 2nd Place Seniors Melbourne Report and Two Decks for Brazil

This article is brought to you by too many ideas, and Drake. Expanded is huge, and is only getting bigger. With the vast number of options available to all of us, I find it hard to believe that there is one absolute best play. Through my testing and development of lists, I have come up with the longest list of potential plays that I have … Continue reading Portland Regionals (Feat. Darkrai & Donphan/Wobbuffet)

I absolutely love talking about Pokemon, because when I first started playing this game, I never thought I’d be granted the opportunity to do so. When I first started, premium content was never in existence barring Pojo and a few other sources, but today people usually have to pay in order to read quality content. For this very reason, I always try to write the … Continue reading “The Melbourne Identity:” Top 32 Oceania Report with Darkrai

I have crept from my comfort zone. I have become accustomed to extremely consistent decks over the last two years, protesting that they are the only way to go. “Consistency is king,” “All winning Worlds decks are consistent,” etc. But recently, my mindset has changed to a degree. Calling my Vespiquen list for Anaheim consistent would be a stretch, and the Mega Mewtwo list that … Continue reading “Take Me Down to the Parallel City:” Phinn’s League Cup-Winning Mega Mewtwo Deck

Hey everybody!  My name is Charlie Lockyer, and this is my first article for Cut or Tap.  I’m a player from New Jersey/Maryland that recently aged up to Masters.  Outside of Pokemon I am on my school’s robotics team, and I play lacrosse. Today I am going to talk about three different Standard decks, one of which is an established archetype, another is a new … Continue reading “Building a Bide Barricade”: Three Options for the Post-Melbourne Standard Format

Where was I last time?… Right. Covering the list. Continue reading “Toad the Line:” Updating Dark/Garb from Standard to Expanded Pt. 2

Before I get into this piece, I want to explain that this article will have two parts. I am posting the second half of the article this Saturday, so I can test some more matchups a little more before adding the matchup descriptions and strategies. With around 20 viable decks in Expanded, one needs far more time to test against all of the strong options. … Continue reading “Toad the Line:” Updating Dark/Garb from Standard to Expanded Pt. 1

Hey there, Cut or Tap readers! Daniel here again, with a little report on my findings at St Louis Regionals. With the tournament’s conclusion, we’ve been shown the complete and utter chaos that is Expanded. Good players did horrible while others pushed through, but for the most part the chaos of Day 2 was the result of those who managed to meet the stronger matchups … Continue reading “Bees are Endangered?” – A Follow Up on Vespiquen in Expanded

I suppose it’s time for you to make a choice. St. Louis is in two days, and there are more options than ever before. I cannot tell you which is the best choice, but I can show you my Expanded Vespiquen list, which is the best thing since sliced bread. My articles that cover one deck in detail seem to be the most well-received, so … Continue reading “Flareon, My Wayward Son” – Expanding on Expanded Vespiquen

Hi Cut or Tap readers, my name is Connor Pedersen. I am a senior who lives in Fair Oaks, California and I have been playing Pokémon competitively for about four years. Some of my most notable accomplishments have been multiple regional Top Cuts, two regional wins, Top 32 at Worlds 2014, and 2nd at Worlds 2016. Players have been so focused on Australia that a lot … Continue reading “En Garde (and On Darkrai):” Three Plays for Collinsville’s Expanded Regionals

What’s up Cut or Tap readers! My name is Jon Eng and I’m extremely excited to be writing again for the site. As some of you may recall, my last article was a report on my experience at Dallas Regionals. I also went over a few decks that I thought would be good decisions for Athens Regionals. Since my last article, we saw the Standard … Continue reading “The Return of the Queen.”: An in Depth Look at Vespiquen/Flareon in the Expanded Format.

Darkrai/Giratina won Anaheim Regionals four days ago, making Kenny Britton a Regional Champion, and giving Darkrai/Tina its first major Standard accomplishment. Dark/Tina is a deck that I used to refer to as a worse version of Turbo Dark. In my “What the Hex” article, and multiple others, I argued that the decreased Max Elixir probability, vulnerability to Enhanced Hammer, and the decrease in consistency create … Continue reading “Paint it Black:” Darkrai Giratina, Turbo Dark, & Yveltal Garbodor

Good morning, Malibu – or should I say Melbourne? How’s it going, Cut or Tap readers! I haven’t written an article for this website for a while, but I’m ecstatic to bring an article that has excited me this past week. Chronologically, I’m writing this before Anaheim, California’s Regionals go underway, so it’ll be interesting to see if my knowledge is correct. I always find … Continue reading “Dragon the Line:” a Look at Gyarados for Standard PRC-SM Format

Hey there, Cut or Tap readers! Daniel here, teaming up with Phinn to bring you our first collaboration! Anaheim Regionals is awfully soon (tomorrow), and Standard is in a crazy place right now. As a bit of an introductory segment, I’ll go over the information we’re sitting on: Yes, these Grass decks work. Decidueye and Lurantis are two GX Pokemon that have been tossed into the … Continue reading Daniel Altavilla & Phinnegan Lynch – Exploring Passimian Raichu, Mega Rayquaza, and Solgaleo Darkrai