I am very surprised by how people are building Malamar right now. The build that I have seems very normal and to the point in my eyes, but I am starting to see that it is actually unorthodox. For the Team Up format I am also working on a similar list that continues to focus on Giratina rather than Ultra Necrozma. Ultra Necrozma does have … Continue reading Giratina Malamar Pre & Post Team Up

ZoroRoc has become my favorite deck once again, mostly because it is the only thing I can find that actually beats Malamar. If you are not already aware, Malamar is somewhat decidedly the best deck right now. Playing ZoroRoc again has made me realized how much stronger it will be when Team Up is legal. This piece goes over my list before Team Up and … Continue reading ZoroRoc for Pre-Team Up and Post-Team Up

Team Up is offering several new archetype concepts and as I’m sure many of you know, I love to jump on them as soon as possible. People have been hyping decks like Zapdos, Malmar Snorlax & Mimikyu, and Tool Drop, but I figured I would put together decks that I haven’t heard anybody else talking about. Some of the decks are more obvious combinations like … Continue reading Standard Team Up Ideas: Darkrai, Alolan Muk Garbodor, Blacephalon Ninetales, Alolan Grimer Nihilego, and ZoroRoc

Dallas Regionals is coming up this weekend and I’m scrambling to test as many games as I can. Other than putting this article out, the only activities in my life will be sleeping, eating, and playing Pokemon. My top two picks for the event are currently ZoroGarb and Blastoise Wailord. I also found myself really enjoying that Buzz Box deck that I talked a little … Continue reading Standard Buzz Box, Expanded Blastoise Wailord, and Expanded ZoroGarb updates

Standard had completely fallen out of my mind for a while until about two weeks ago. I attended a Standard challenge for a breath of fresh air. The deck I was most interested in before I started preparing for Anaheim Regionals was ZoroRoc, so I figured I would pick the deck back up. It worked out very well and I’m actually excited to get back … Continue reading Standard League Cup/Challenge Decks: ZoroRoc, Buzz Box, Blacephalon, and Malamar

Although my ZoroGarb list did not make top 8 in masters, I did win the 128 man cup in day two with it and two of the Seniors I coach made top 8 with it. Those accolades mean something, but I am disappointed that I couldn’t take it further in the main event; I lost my win-and-in. Since the event, there are two changes I … Continue reading League Cup First Place ZoroGarb/ Analyzing Top 8 ZoroGarb Lists

This article covers six decks that I have worked on in preparation for Anaheim. The format for this piece is mostly short descriptions with each piece describing list details. If you’re looking for in-depth match up descriptions, this is not the article for you. I felt it was more important to give people good lists for several options since there are a ton of different … Continue reading Final Lists for Anaheim: ZoroPlume, Cofagrigus, Blastoise, ZoroGarb, Groudon, and BuzzRoc

About two weeks ago I realized that Whitney can be used in Expanded in combination with Unown (Hand). You can compressor three copies, then play the fourth and draw seven cards with no down side. On the next turn, you can do the same by playing a VS Seeker. The reason why this is significant is not because drawing seven is actually an extremely good … Continue reading Unown Hand Concept

Expanded is in a strange place right now because the format has turned very denial/control oriented. So much so, that cards like Seismitoad and Lusamine actually have a legitimate place in decks. Lost Thunder takes the control/denial paradigm to a new level by adding cards such as Girafarig, Faba, and Morty. Faba in particular changes a lot because several decks were relying exclusively on Double … Continue reading Expanded Ideas: Cofagrigus Giratina, Zoro/Control Variants and Raikou Eels

This piece is mostly a follow up to the last article I posted. All that needs to change in those lists are a few cards to fit the new meta and I see all of them as solid plays again. Again this piece covers ZoroRoc, Giratina Malamar, and Blacephalon, however I have also included a list for ZoroControl that I prefer to the current one. … Continue reading Countering ZoroControl and countering the counters

I was planning on putting out a part three of Improving on Japan Lists for Blacephalon, but have decided to combine that with this post. The title pretty much explains what this article includes, so I’m just going to get into it. ZoroRoc Continue reading Final lists for Brazil: ZoroRoc, Giratina Malamar, and Blacephalon Naganadel

Despite the negative press ZoroRoc has been getting lately, I think it’s actually an amazing option for Brazil. The deck has to be build in a far different way to work with the additions from Lost Thunder and to meet new demands from Blacephalon; the list I have come up with does so. Players are overlooking some great combos that recently presented themselves to this … Continue reading Improving on Japanese Lists Part 2 (ZoroRoc)

Many of us have built or at least payed attention to the list that did well at the Champion’s League Tokyo event. It is our first look at how to build new archetypes such as Blacephalon Naganadel, Giratina Malamar, and Granbull. As I started testing out these lists, I realized there were some flaws that I should not have been surprised to run into. Japanese … Continue reading Improving on Japanese Lists Part 1 (Giratina Malamar)

The truth is, I did not test Night March enough. I got to the point where my list was what I still consider perfect (except maybe Marowak over Ranger), but I didn’t know the matchups. It wasn’t until round 6 that I realized you’re supposed to go second in several matchups, that against Sableye Garbodor you simply KO Sableyes while Colressing every turn, and that … Continue reading Post-Portland; Night March’s Future

Garb Box is the only top tier option I haven’t talked about on the site yet, which is mostly because I kept feeling like I didn’t have the list quite right. Now I’m at a point where the list is about as good as I believe it can get (at least with the approach I took) and I have decided to stop editing the deck. … Continue reading Garbodor Box and ZoroGarb update

The bans and addition of a few new sets have brought back and changed some past archetypes, as well as creating Milotic Marshadow. I have been working on these three decks, not necessarily because I plan to use any of them for Portland Regionals but so that I can give you guys some strong lists if you are interested in them. Let’s start with Archie’s … Continue reading Archie’s Blastoise, BuzzRoc, and Milotic Marshadow

Night March is one of my top options because it seems under-teched for. The addition of Order Pad and Maxie gives the deck more strength than Zoroark does in this meta. Night March is a deck that does not really need an explanation to help understand why it is good, what needs an explanation is why the deck would not be good. We had an … Continue reading Night March

ZoroGarb is the best deck in Expanded, which should not be a surprise to anyone considering the deck just won worlds and is the naturally progression of ZoroEggs. That is not to say no deck beats ZoroGarb or that ZoroGarb will certainly win Portland, but if the deck that wins dedicates a big portion of its list solely to counter ZoroGarb (such as Drampa Garbodor … Continue reading Expanded Zoroark Garbodor