Konnichiwa gozaimasu, subs! I’m currently two days from traveling to Japan while writing this piece. With the majority of my testing for the World Championship completed, I wanted to share some ideas with you all. Decks listed in this article will be out of the ordinary, including obscure strategies and win conditions. Rogue decks have a special place in my heart; they have granted me … Continue reading “Rolodex of Rogues”: Going for Broke in Tokyo

Introduction Hello, Cut or Tap readers! Day 1 Worlds is a super weird event to prepare for, and a lot of people will be playing top meta decks like Arceus Duraludon Umberon, or Giratina Lost Zone Box. While these decks are all very powerful, and great calls, my favorite way to play the game is with off-meta decks. While this may seem risky going into … Continue reading Making a Meta Call at Worlds

Hello, Cut or Tap readers. I hope you have been enjoying our new roster of great players who now write for my website. Although I have taken more of a backseat role in Cut or Tap’s content lately, I still have some information and advice to give to those going to Worlds. In this article, I cover the patterns we can can observe from previous … Continue reading Preparing for Worlds 2023

Recently in the online tournament scene, Giratina Vstar has become very popular in both the Lost Zone and Arceus versions of the deck. In this article, I will be going over Arceus/Giratina and its matchup spread across the Standard meta to find out if it is a good play for the World Championships. Arceus/Giratina Vstar has been gaining a lot of popularity because of its … Continue reading “Judge, Path, Repeat:” A Guide to Arceus/Giratina Vstar

Howdy, Cut or Tap readers! It’s Michael Perez, and I’m happy to be writing about a deck that I really enjoy and that is not Lost Box. I’ve played at least 2000 games with an assortment of Lost Zone variants, and frankly, it’s getting old. The 2023 season is almost at an end! Yokohama approaches hastily, and meanwhile I scramble to decide what I want to … Continue reading It’s Hailing in Paldea! A Deep Dive Into Chien-Pao/Baxcalibur

What’s up, everyone! SmartTCG here, and I am stoked to be hopping into an article dedicated to your success heading into the 2023 Pokemon TCG World Championships. I have qualified for several World Championships, and I know what it takes to do well. I finished with over 1100 Points this season, and have automatically qualified for Day 2 of the World Championships. Now… what exactly … Continue reading How to Do Well at the World Championships

Hello, Cut or Tap readers! I’m Jake Gearhart, and if you’ve read anything from me in the past— whether on Twitter, or in any articles I’ve written elsewhere— you’ll know that I love talking about a different side of Pokémon from what most people tend to spend time on. Sometimes that’s critiquing game-design, or poking holes in the game’s most complicated rulings, but the topic … Continue reading How Likely Am I to Win a Tournament?

Many blessings, Subs! It’s been a short while since you heard from me, because life has been busier than ever. My job has been on overtime due to the summer months’ busy season, along with 100-degree heat keeping me quite exhausted. The largest tournament in history has concluded, giving us the first bit of data to look at for this new format. Only the World … Continue reading “GOD DID”: Arceus’s Success and NAIC Recap

Introduction Hello, Cut or Tap readers! My name is Andrew Gantner and I will be competing in Day 1 of the upcoming World Championships taking place in early August. In this article, I will talk about my top three picks to play for the competition.  As of now, I have narrowed down what I am considering to three choices: Lost Zone Box Kyogre, Lost Zone … Continue reading My Top Three Picks Going Into Worlds

Hello, readers! First-time writer here. My name is Braiden Elfert and I have been playing Pokemon competitively since 2017. Most notably, I have enjoyed innovating every Arceus partner I can find. So what better to write about than one of my favorite partners for Arceus right now: Goodra. Without further ado, here is my current list: After upgrading to Stage 2 you will see the … Continue reading Guide to the Slip and Slide

Welcome, Cut or Tap readers! I am Andrew Hedrick, excited to be back writing another article. Just a couple of weekends ago, the largest-ever Pokemon tournament outside of Japan took place at the North America International Championships in Columbus, Ohio. With nearly 1900 Masters in attendance, it was going to be a difficult challenge for anyone trying to place at the top. Cyrus Davis managed … Continue reading “Is It Still Good?” My NAIC Run with Lost Box, and the Deck’s Place in the Meta

Hello, Cut or Tap readers! Today I am going to be discussing a couple builds of Lost Box Giratina VSTAR, their strengths and weaknesses, and some important notes on playing the deck, since they feel quite a bit different from some of the more aggressive builds in the past.  Before getting into Giratina builds, I want to give a brief overview of my NAIC run. … Continue reading Lost in the Abyss: Lost Zone Giratina Lists, and Analysis for Worlds

The biggest tournament run by TPCI of all time has concluded, and Cyrus Davis took down over 1800 players with one of the most unique decks in the format: Rapid Strike Urshifu and Inteleon VMAX. I most recently returned from the North American International Championships placing 19th, and I learned a lot about the metagame, and where the deck I chose to play leads into … Continue reading Lugia is back! A Look into my 19th place NAIC Lugia List

Introduction Hello, Cut or Tap readers! This is my debut article for this website, and I am excited to go over my latest tournament run at the North American International Championships, where I finished in the Top 8 out of 1,897 Masters. In this event, I played “Dumbreon” (Arceus, Duraludon, Umbreon) and finished with the record 12-4-0 throughout 16 rounds, including Top Cut. Deck List … Continue reading How I Placed Top 8 at the Largest Internationals in Pokémon History

Squawk and Seize the day, subscribers! Hunter back again, for another Paldea Evolved-format deck which hasn’t been talked too much about. I’ve now been testing the Paldea Evolved format for over a month, and feel very confident about the stance of many decks. This article will entail my thoughts on where the meta is for the largest tournament of Pokemon TCG history: the 2023 North … Continue reading “Champions Take Flight:” NAIC Preparation

This article is 2,565 words on Lost Box. I will be playing either Turbo Lost Box or Lost Box Kyogre at NAIC and this article details those decks in the Paldea Evolved format. I believe Lost Box was the best deck before the release of Paldea Evolved, and this new set release does not change that. Lost Box can be structured to beat anything. Recently … Continue reading Lost Box is Still King

Hello! I’m Andrew Hedrick, back with another article on Cut or Tap. This time, I will be focusing on the new set, Paldea Evolved, to help you better understand the meta going into the North America International Championships and beyond. Specifically, I will be writing about Lost Box decks, and the potential changes they will see with this new card pool and the adaptations of … Continue reading Changes to Lost Box in Paldea Evolved

This is the article you want to read if you want to do well at the North American International Championships. The biggest tournament of all time in the western world is upon us, and it is time to get ready to compete in it. What’s up, everyone! SmartTCG here, and I am stoked to be writing my most important article to date for Cut or … Continue reading How to Do Well at NAIC: Two Picks for Columbus

Introduction Hello, Cut or Tap readers! With the introduction of Paldea Evolved into the format, many new consistency options are available, such as Iono and Squawkabilly ex. These cards have been increasing Lugia’s consistency to be significantly higher than last format, making the deck an underrated choice for NAIC. Last format, we saw Lugia dominate in the hands of Regan Retzloff, but there were still … Continue reading Looking at Lugia: Single Strike vs Colorless Lugia for NAIC

Welcome back, Cut or Tap readers! As we prepare for the highly anticipated North American International Championships, which is likely to be the largest tournament ever outside of Japan, I am excited to share my unique perspective on a deck that exudes unparalleled power: Baxcalibur. Reminiscent of the iconic Blastoise/Keldeo deck that dominated the Standard format years ago, this new powerhouse possesses the potential to … Continue reading A Unique Take on Baxcalibur